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RIAA Short on Funds? Fails to Pay Attorney Fees
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Can it be that the RIAA, or the "Big 4" record companies it represents, are short on funds? It turns out that despite the Judge's order, entered a month ago, telling them to pay Debbie Foster $68,685.23 in attorneys fees, in Capitol v. Foster, they have failed to make payment. Ms. Foster has now had to ask the Court to enter Judgment, so that she can commence 'post judgment collection proceedings'. According to Ms. Foster's motion papers (pdf), her attorneys received no response to their email inquiry about payment. Perhaps the RIAA should ask their lawyers for a loan?"
It removes responsibility. In particular, assume that RIAA declares bankruptcy, or simply decides to say that it is none-existent. The labels will simply spin up RIAAII. What is needed is to require the parent companies to take full responsibility for ALL of their subsidiaries, ownerships.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
They obviously have the money to pay. But the point (or one of the points) of these lawsuits is to make people's lives hell, to make examples, to discourage copyright infringement by others. Here, they are trying to make show that even if you fight and win, you still lose.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
It is being eaten up by all the money they are losing because people are downloading their songs instead of buying them.
Insert Generic Sig Here:
According to Ms. Foster's motion papers (pdf), her attorneys received no response to their email inquiry about payment.
If you're trying to collect money owed due to a legal ruling, it'd be prudent for your attorney to pick up the phone, and/or put the request in writing and send it via certified mail.
Other than having assets seized by the Sheriff and auctioned off to settle the debt? No, none.
Which occasionally leads to an attorney for a major corporation running to the court house steps as said corporation is about to have its home office auctioned off to cover some paltry judgement. Sometimes the suits forget that the legal process does in fact have an end game, and that their team lost.
Luke, help me take this mask off
They paid off the Sheriff. (But they did not pay off the Deputy.)
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
If the RIAA or the Labels behind it are about to go under, I promise you long before any of us knows about it, the Execs will bail with golden parachutes. Everyone else can scrabble over the pennies.
'Contempt of Court' is a charge that comes from the Judge, not the parties. You can't file to hold the other litigants in CoC. An annoyed Judge might listen appreciatively to the complaint, but usually they don't even want to hear either party make the suggestion.
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Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Here they're spending about $5000 in attorneys fees to try and squeeze $543 out of a 20 year old. I guess
-they really do need the money, and
-they're really bad businessmen.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
The only reason to mention the email at all is that the fact that they are ignoring communication attempts is itself somewhat amusing.
Mod +1 Sad but True
I'm assuming Capitol Records is in CA, specifically LA County, as I regularly drive by the Capitol Records building -- it's shaped like a stack of 45s with a needle stylus on top.
LA County Sheriff Lee Baca is well known for being starstruck and accomodating to the entertainment industry. See the Paris Hilton fiasco for details.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Ignoring a judgement is a pretty dangerous game. A creditor who knows what they're doing can get liens on property, seize bank accounts, etc.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Different end in LRH's case, but the same means. The tort system, without careful rules, is just a big harassment system that rich people can use on poor people.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
You really should do some research on how this sort of thing works. If you have a judgment against someone who has the assets, it is generally a very simple process to force collection. In California, you subpoena appropriate employees of the company in to court to answer questions - somebody like the CFO, to answer questions like "Where are you bank accounts" and "What is the account number and current balance" and "What is the license plate number and VIN of every car owned by the RIAA and issued to employees to use." Then you just pick what you're going to have uniformed Marshall's deputies go out and seize, at gunpoint if necessary, to sell off. Banks are very cooperative about taking money out of a bank account.
And if they ignore the subpoena, judges tend to do things like issue arrest warrants, eventually.
Anybody who fails to collect on a judgement against someone who actually has the wealth has no one to blame but themselves.
Hell, even $cientology was forced, on pain of prison time for higher-ups, to pay a judgement.
Sure - but until it get to the actual act of that, there are steps to take and the deptor can turn around anytime and just put the money (including fees) on the table.
It's harrassment, as previously mentioned. I have something like that going on with a larger company with a ridiculously small amount - they just show you the finger and have their fun with it.
Underlying reason for this behavior? I'd say immaturity.
Pretty much what this whole RIAA chase after small people is. Must be a bunch of brainless corporate robots "doing their job".
Here is an example what that means in human terms: almost 20% of a group of fisherman involved in the spill have died since it happened. http://www.oiledfishermenvsexxon.com/
To put this in perspective, Exxon-Mobil had the largest single year profit for a corporation in 2005 $36.13 billion: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/30/business/30cnd-e xxon.html?ex=1296277200&en=8ec83a7f4025b22b&ei=508 8&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
And they have still avoided paying the roughly 5 billion (2.5 billion to start with almost 20 years of interest.)
This is not justice, it's legalized rape.
"A bank customer who was angered by the refusal of his branch to refund thousands of pounds of charges responded by sending in the bailiffs.
Customers at the branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in North London were stunned to see debt collectors that were hired by Declan Purcell seize four computers, two fax machines and a till filled with cash."
More:
Times Online: Bailiffs seize bank's cash
What, a letter via registered mail was too expensive?
Registered mail is only necessary when you are trying to give someone notice. The RIAA already has notice of the order. From this point, it doesn't really matter how they try to contact them about collecitng. They could send messages to them via singing telegram.But damn, wouldn't it be beautiful irony if in fact, they did plummet to the ground at terminal velocity tethered to golden parachutes?
!#&*
[to the tune of "Happy Birthday"]
Give me money right now
Give me money right now
Give me money
Effing cheapskates
Give me money right now.
My mom went through something similar too with the contractor that re-did her basement after a flooding but butchered the decontamination.
Since it was a private company at the time (the guy did incorporate his company between that job and the court proceedings) and the guy had no seizable property to his name (all under his wife's), the judge gave my mom the paperwork to request bailiffs at her leisure. Since he wouldn't give my mom her money by claiming he did not have it, my mom decided to pay $2000 to have bailiffs lock up all the guy's credit and banking accounts right away. The guy noticed his accounts were frozen the next day and his wife wrote my mom a ~$60k check right away. (And yes, it cleared.)
I wonder how long the RIAA would defer payment of their fine if the woman in this case did get bailiffs to suspend RIAA banking and credit accounts until payment is delivered... that would certainly be funny - imagine how the RIAA's lawyers would react to their bouncing paychecks!