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

Re:Typo

[Mr. Underbridge]

Yeah, I don't think anyone would have figured that out minus your help. Thanks.

WTF?

[FredDC]

From TFA:

When the first CD was done, she announced the time as 2:36.18. Gabriel immediately objected saying that they timed it at over four minutes. The apparently-amused judge said that the jurors could figure out the time for themselves. The second CD ripped in 2:17.71 according to the defendant's timing (I timed the second demonstration in 2:18.97). Gabriel again objected, saying that he had it at three-and-a-half minutes.

My theory is that one lawyer is 'spinning' the truth alot faster than the other. Therefor resulting in the major difference in elapsed time.

Re:WTF?

[Herkum01]

The second CD ripped in 2:17.71 according to the defendant's timing (I timed the second demonstration in 2:18.97). Gabriel again objected, saying that he had it at three-and-a-half minutes.

I would assume that Mr Gabriel is using the same clock that uses for billing his clients as that would account for the time differences.

Good for Cary Sherman

[jonathan3003]

The judge probably saved him from perjury.

Re:What are the limits on "making available"?

[Shadow Wrought]

So, did I "make [those files] available" to him by giving him a memory key that happened to have the files on it?

Yes you did. We'll be contacting you soon.

- The RIAA