Testimony Wraps In RIAA Trial

Eskimo Joe writes "A federal judge surprised observers in the Captiol v Thomas file-sharing trial yesterday by barring RIAA president Cary Sherman from testifying. 'After a brief recess this afternoon, plaintiffs' counsel Richard Gabriel and defendant's counsel David Toder made their cases before the judge as to the relevance of Sherman's testimony. Toder argued that Sherman's testimony was not relevant to the question at hand, the fact of whether Thomas was liable for copyright infringement. Gabriel said that Sherman would be able to tell the jury why this case was significant, and more importantly, describe the harm the RIAA believes piracy has caused to the music industry. "I don't want to turn this case into a soap box for the recording industry," Toder argued in response.' Testimony wrapped up today [Wednesday] with closing arguments expected Thursday morning." Ars has up a summary, filed a few hours earlier, of other testimony in the trial. The jury could come back with a verdict later today.

Comments

You keep using that word...

[Anonymous Coward]

Please stop using the word "piracy." It just reinforces strange connotations that don't apply.

We are talking about data duplication at best, and copyright infringement at worst. No rape, pillage, or boats are involved. No selling of the content in question is involved either (nobody is making money off anyone else's work). This is not piracy.

Yes, I know languages evolve and the word has taken on a new meaning. In my opinion, it is a bad meaning that was deliberately selected to make something relatively harmless seem much more evil than it is, and therefore I will continue to encourage people to avoid using it.