Slashdot Mirror
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.
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 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?
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.
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.