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RIAA Wants Student Deposed On School Day
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In a Houston, Texas, case, UMG v. Hightower, the RIAA has served a subpoena on the defendant's son, a high school student, on one day's notice, telling him to be at a lawyer's office at 9:00 a.m. the next day, a school day, for a deposition. The defendant's lawyer objected (PDF)."
Uhh, I hate to even sound like I'm agreeing with the MAFIAA on anything, but when exactly are they supposed to depose him if not on a school day? The school week and the work week are pretty well aligned, and forcing them to either work on a weekend or wait until he's on vacation is stretching things. Their actions are certainly deplorable, especially giving a one-day notice, but doing it on a school day isn't one of those deplorable actions.
An RIAA lawyer today tipped poorly at the diner where he eats breakfast.
June Dawson, 43, waited on him this morning. She is a single mother of two, battling cancer. She was not enthusiastic about the tip: "He left a stinking dime. Next time I'm going to spit in his eggs."
The RIAA did not respond to enquiries at press time.
RIAA is basically becoming an automated bot nowadays, anyway. I'd be surprised if they don't show up in court as robots with brief cases as well.
Someone needs to start doing something about RIAA's boundaries and arrogance, considering they're getting so careless with who they're attacking nowadays. How long will it be, before Judges and courtrooms are sick of these petty charges, and start only allowing the larger criminals who actually sell and distribute?
Right now, you're paying less when distributing marijuana or posessing cocaine, than you are to host MP3's.. EVEN if you're a child!
There HAS to be a line drawn somewhere.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
RIAA is realy getting out of hand with their bullying. It's good to hear news about their losses, but their abviosly winning enough to keep harassing.
With their own lawyer and without giving enough time to prepare anything. There is only one possible explanation: what they really want is an intimidation session.
Since he would not be facing a policeman but the opposition lawyer, can he simply walk away anytime he wants or refuse to sign anything?
Also, I just realized '9:00 am the next day' was two days ago, so...what happened?
The fact that it's scheduled on a school day is no big deal. I've never seen a depo scheduled on a weekend.
One day notice is pretty weird, though. Traditionally you clear dates with opposing counsel as professional courtesy, or you at least set it far enough in advance to work things out.
I think either way, having to show up at court in less than 24 hours is terrifying at any age. Personally, I hate showing up for traffic tickets with a months advance. This just seems like an attempt at disrupting the defendants home life.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
The real kicker here is not that it is a school day, but it is during Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test week as well and the one day notice.
I may not be a lawyer, but I know this to be false. Don't give the RIAA any more power of fear than they already enjoy. Deponents can object, if a witness refuses the moving party can ask for a motion to compel, there are lots of rememdies other than automatically losing. The biggest problem isn't that the kid is going to miss school, its that they are attempting to take his deposition with only 24 hours notice. In my experience as a paralegal, again- IANAL, that is simply poor if not abusive practice.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
The defendent's attorney said:
The subpoena is being used for patently improper purpose, namely as a fishing expedition by plaintiffs'
That sums up the RIAA's entire strategy.
They're doing him a favor. Really.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
It is odd. Lawyers, and especially the riaa, are so typically thoughtful....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
I'm convinced the school-day deposition request is very intentional. They want the other kids to know the boy missed an important school day because he was in hot water over file sharing. It's all part of their perverse scare tactics.
Say your lawyer is busy. You are entitled to your choice of legal representative.
Serving a notice for a sworn deposition on one day's notice is contrary to the rules of professional conduct, and can (and should) result in penalties against the lawyers' clients in court, as well as with with the lawyer regulatory disciplinary authority.
1. Quit downloading RIAA music
2. Do not share RIAA music (help prevent the spread of mindshare) (ugh, I hate buzzwords)
3. Do not buy RIAA music (or if you do, stick to back catalogues from USED CD/record stores)
4. Do not tune to new RIAA music on the radio so you can avoid being tempted to buy new product from RIAA
By doing so, RIAA members will eventually either go broke or go independent, and the independent labels will rise in popularity as their buying power increases beyond that of the dying RIAA cartel.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Dispositions are required attendance, which is why a subpoena is generally issued to enforce them. If he blows off showing up, the consequences (if any) are entirely up to the judge who issued the subpoena.... who, if particularly pissed off that day, could find him in contempt of court and sentence him to jail time. Under the circumstances, though, I can't see any (reasonable) judge doing this.
"Why does the music industry feel it should tamper with the education of our minors just to placate some facile legal action?"
Dude, get a clue: these are *pirates, they don't care about education. All they care about is stealing, stealing, stealing other people's intellectual property.
If anything is tampering with their education, it's the alien viruses in their brains, which impel them to download our songs for *nothing, thereby descrating our intellectual property. The same intellectual property provided for in the Constitution, section IV, which says
"Intellectual property rocks. We should have lots of it."
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
OK - I am posting anonymously because I am a lawyer. First - When you subpoena someone to appear for deposition, Rule 30(b)(1) says you must give them reasonable notice. The Court is very, very likely to say that 24 hours notice is not reasonable notice. Second - It is extremely bad form, though not actually improper, to just notice someone for deposition without talking to them first about the date. Just leads to exactly this kind of problem. Third - RIAA is represented by lawyers who know better. Gardere Wynn is a Really Big Firm. They know better than to behave this way in front of Judge Atlas. Shame on them. Federal Court practices demands a higher standard of behavior on the part of the lawyers. Fourth - You have to properly serve the witness. Emailing the mom's lawyer in an attempt to serve the kids is not proper service. However, it does make sense to email mom's lawyer and ASK whether he would accept service so that you don't have to send a process server out to serve the kids. All in all, I would not expect Judge Atlas to be pleased with Gardere, Wynn's behavior here. Judge Atlas is a good judge. I'd expect her to make RIAA play according to the rules here. One of the great things about federal court is that the judges are generally of very high caliber, are extremely/proudly independent, and don't take no shit off of nobody. As long as you play by the rules, are prepared and don't waste the judge's time the solo lawyer with a brand new law license will be treated the same as hordes of grey haired lawyers from a mega-firm.
And as the mods have already pointed out, what does this have to do with this article?
Right, wrong, left, right, it doesn't matter. The kid was told to show up in court under penalty of law with a 24 hour notice, on a school day, that was a state exame day required for graduation.
If that isn't unreasonable, I dont know what is. This kid hasn't been shown to be guilty of anything, thats what the court is trying to do. Is it right to yank kids out of school on VERY important days, because someone believes he, or someone he's closly related to, MAY have POSSIBLY violated a CIVIL law, and isn't by the very nature of the beast, a criminal act?
Should they be allowed to strongarm people, and scare them into settling out of court for outrageous fees and fines, without being given enough time to even have a laywer review the damn situation? Should this kid, who again, is not yet proven to be guilty of anything, have his future jepordized by missing quite easily one of the most vital days of the school year, because some multi-billion dollar company thinks he might have copied that floppy?
There's your damn wild west.
Good post... much agreed.
For example... My wife was caught with a basic speeding citation a week ago. She called in to see if she could pay it over the phone. She was denied to pay before the court date unless she came in, in person.
Fine and dandy... right?
Among the charges that you COULD pay for without going to court, or prepay, nonetheless... WERE:
Wreckless Driving
DUI or DWI
Possession of Marijuana and/or intent to distribute.
I don't actually think that you should even be arrested for marijuana possession, considering the law was based on lies... But, it's still fucked up.
So...These kids have to go to court for sharing music and spend money on court costs, lawyers, fines or fees to the plantiff.. but a guy who almost kills them by driving drunk, or gets caught with a federally proclaimed "controlled substance", can pay a $500 fine FROM HIS LIVINGROOM!
In all reality, my son could go to RIAA headquarters with a bag of weed while drunk, go inside and beat the piss out of a few of them... GET CAUGHT, then pay LESS fines than he would if he hosted X amount of songs on his computer.
Hmm. Maybe I'm on to something. How many people are at RIAA and where is it located?
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.