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Class Action Initiated Against RIAA
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Ever since the RIAA's litigation campaign began in 2003, many people have been suggesting a class action against the RIAA. Tanya Andersen, in Oregon, has taken them up on it. The RIAA's case against this disabled single mother, Atlantic v. Andersen, has received attention in the past, for her counterclaims against the RIAA including claims under Oregon's RICO statute, the RIAA's hounding of her young daughter for a face-to-face deposition, the RIAA's eventual dropping of the case 'with prejudice,' and her lawsuit against the RIAA for malicious prosecution, captioned Andersen v. Atlantic. Now she's turned that lawsuit into a class action. The amended complaint seeking class action status (PDF) sues for negligence, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, federal and state RICO, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trespass, invasion of privacy, libel and slander, deceptive business practices, misuse of copyright law, and civil conspiracy."
Unless you were approached by the RIAA, the most you can do is cheer them on.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
she names a number of other defendants including:
d =20249893
Atlantic Recording Corp.
Priority Records
Capitol Records
UMG Recordings
BMG
And lets not forget that RIAA is just a front organization for a host of others listed here --> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=271437&ci
The Association has no product per se, the alleged racketeering is therefore being funded by it's members.
I wish her luck as well a success.
Hope is the currency of fools
* EMI - New York and London
* Sony BMG Music Entertainment - New York
* Universal Music Group - Santa Monica, CA and New York
* Warner Music Group - New York
List of RIAA member labels for more information.
Let's get those bastards.
The vast majority of class actions are neither won, nor lost, but settled. In this case, I would imagine that the defendants' shareholders are already starting to wake up to the reality that they have been played for suckers by their lawyers, and the companies will be most eager to settle.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
I don't think I said 50%. I think I said that less than 50% of the defendants are people who actually did engage in file sharing.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
You are buying into this same *IAA BS that they *only* go after the guilty. Fact is you don't know if the majority are factually or technically guilty and it doesn't matter either way. IF they were in fact guilty, it still does not give the *IAA the permission to engage in predatory and/or illegal practices in prosecuting their case. Just as it doesn't give the government the right to violate laws to obtain a confession or guilty verdict in a criminal case. You don't get a "bye" to violate laws because you were chasing actual people violating the law. Exactly how many cases have been concluded with a determination of guilt in favor of the *IAA? There may have been some, but I am not aware of any offhand. I do not believe that settlements out of court count in this regard but then again, IANAL. I don't think you can show out of court settlements as proof of anything other than the previous vict...err defendants settled. Depending on the wording of those settlements they may clearly state that without admitting any guilt they accept the settlement, blah, blah, blah. Hardly something the *IAA could use to bolster their case in this regard.
Again, even if the majority are guilty technically or otherwise it doesn't give the *IAA a blank check to violate other laws in pursuing them.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
People aren't COMPLETELY retarded. Only mostly. If there's an increase in accidents, people will slow down. And the solution is to put a speed limit NEAR what people are going through the area at. If people are going 50 past a school zone, yeah, that's an issue. But if it's a limited-access highway and everyone is going 75 even though the speed limit is 45? That's just poor design or greed. If you're concerned about safety, set the speed limit there up from 45 to 60 or 65. That way people will have a reasonable top speed they'll want to go, you'll keep people slightly slower overall, and everyone is happy. Commuters get where they're going faster, and ambulances still have very few people to scrape off the retaining walls.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
I would just like to clarify, however, that simply "Allowing others to download from you for free" would not necessarily be an "unauthorized distribution" under the Copyright Act, the elements of which are spelled out in 17 USC 106(3). To qualify as a Copyright Act "distribution" there must be
(I) dissemination of
(II) actual copies
(III) to the public
(IV) by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.
See reply memorandum of law in Warner v. Cassin (pdf), especially pages 3-4, and initial memorandum of law (pdf), especially pages 3-6.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
In fact this is how speed limits are supposed to be determined, it's called the 85th percentile speed, the speed at or below which 85% of traffic moves. There's a good article here explaining how it works. One pertinent quote is this one:
Contrary to popular belief, lower speed limits do not necessarily improve safety. The more uniform the speeds of vehicles in a traffic stream, the less chance there is for conflict or crashes. Posting speed limits lower or higher than what the majority of drivers are traveling produces two distinct groups of drivers: 1) those attempting to observe the speed limit and 2) those driving at speeds they feel are reasonable and prudent. These differences can result in increased crashes due to tailgating, improper passing, and reckless driving.So deliberately posting a speed limit below the 85th percentile speed is not only greedy, it's likely to get more people killed as well. The only benefit is to allow more tickets to be written. Personally I'd prefer to see less people wreck.
Laws on speed limits are modeled after this, and should be nearly the same in all states in the US. As someone pointed out on Slashdot before (which is where I learned all this), you can often get out of a speeding ticket by asking if a traffic survey has been done recently on the road in question. (These have to be done every so many years to ensure the speed limit is still at the 85th percentile speed, it can change over time.) If one hasn't been done in the required time the speed limit's not valid as far as enforcement goes, and if the speed posted doesn't agree with the survey you're also likely to have your ticket dismissed. I've never tried this myself (I try not to speed nowadays myself) and it'll probably vary somewhat depending on where you're located and also on the judge you deal with, but speed limits are supposed to make sense so that only the truly dangerous drivers are breaking them. If everyone's speeding then it's definitely not the 85th percentile speed.
IANAL... but here's a layman's guess to justify the claims....
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By the way, THANK YOU NewYorkCountryLawyer for your time and energy to bring these stories to Slashdot and for your pursuit of change within an industry that is so important to us. It is more than music that is at stake... it is culture... and without that then life become one big huge business - and it wouldn't be any fun for anybody.
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