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RIAA Backs Down On "Unlicensed Investigator"

Posted by kdawson on from the fight-fairly-now dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Texas grandmother Rhonda Crain got the RIAA to drop its monetary claims against her after she filed counterclaims against the record companies for using an investigator, MediaSentry, which is not licensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas. The RIAA elected to drop its claims rather than wait for the Judge to decide the validity of Ms. Crain's charges (PDF) that the plaintiff record companies were 'aware that the... private investigations company was unlicensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas specifically, and in other states as well... and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign.' Similar questions about MediaSentry's unlicensed investigations were raised recently by the State Attorney General of Oregon in Arista v. Does 1-17"

7 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Is she going to sue MediaSentry? by davidwr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd love to see the discovery on that one.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Is she going to sue MediaSentry? by TheMeuge · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Someone should set up a fund for her to go after RIAA and MediaSentry over this.

      Heck, I'd Paypal a few bucks over to see how this turns out. I figure another ten thousand people are with me. If we all chip in $20, that'd be enough to get this ball rolling.

  2. They should have dropped the suit entirely by stox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I am reading this right, IANAL, blah, blah, blah, RIAA is simply dropping monetary damages. They have not dropped the suit. I don't see how this will effect the counter-claims. Hopefully, Grandma will ream their tail ends so bad that their heads will fall through.

    Go Grandma! Go!

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  3. Not surprising by Stanislav_J · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They probably thought it was better to drop one case than to risk a precedent-setting decision that would have invalidated hundreds of other similar "investigations" and perhaps result in some sort of class-action suit.

    --
    "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
  4. Not only emotion... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Part of this is to show the sheer innaccuracy of the RIAA lawsuits in the first place.

    I'm making a list. To my knowledge, they've sued:

    • Several pre-teen girls, who could not possibly afford either to buy the music legitimately or to pay the settlement.
    • Several grandmothers, who are unlikely to even know what P2P is.
    • At least one dead person.
    • At least one person who has never, in her life, touched a computer.

    There's probably more, but I haven't been paying attention.

    If the facts are so firmly on the defendants' sides as Ray would have us all believe, why is it necessary to resort to such blatantly manipulative appeal to emotion?

    If the facts are so firmly on the defendants' sides, why not appeal to emotion?

    Just understand, pointing out the people involved -- especially when those people are unlikely to be capable of piracy, much less want to -- is not always an appeal to emotion. Sometimes, it's simply an appeal to common sense -- which is why you will occasionally see articles tagged "suddenbreakoutofcommonsense", for when the RIAA/MPAA is losing.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  5. There's a sting about to happen by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 4, Interesting
    for a while I was thinking of working as a private investigator. More than one PI agency is wildly looking for digital investigators to do copyright investigation.

    I have a job, but I'm "on a certain list" so these kinds of job offers come across my desk.

    It's not good, and it's not pretty. Someone with Serious Pockets is looking to screw a Lot Of People over copyright re: file trading.

    It's all coming out of the "heartland USA". I moved out of the states a while ago. But "people know me" so I get rumblings/job offers before others do. If this investigation goes down as it seems, it will be ugly.

    For whom? Well teh music industry of course. They're a bunch of fucking morons with a business model that bears no resemblance to what the market is requiring. So rather than grow a lobe for profit (vis the Ferengi) they would rather do the American Thing and sue everyone into the dirt. Morons.

    So: word up: the morons are on the march...

    RS

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  6. Re:Why try so hard to appeal to emotion? by NewYorkCountryLawyer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What I want is for the truth to get out there, and I want this reign of terror to end. The most important single factor in almost all of these cases is the huge economic imbalance in each and every case. In an ideal world that would not be relevant to the outcome, but is there anyone out there who thinks we are in an ideal world?......

    Raise your hands.

    I don't see any hands.

    --
    Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful