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Magistrate Suggests Fining RIAA Lawyers
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Angered at the RIAA's 'gamesmanship' in joining multiple 'John Does' in a single case without any basis for doing so, a Magistrate Judge in Maine has suggested to the presiding District Judge in Arista v. Does 1-27 that the record companies and/or their lawyers should be fined under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules, for misrepresenting the facts. In a lengthy footnote to her opinion recommending denial of a motion to dismiss the complaint (PDF, see footnote 5), Judge Kruvchak concluded that 'These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined.' She noted that once the RIAA dismisses its 'John Doe' case it does not thereafter join the defendants when it sues them in their real names. Arista v. Does 1-27 is the same case in which student attorneys at the University of Maine Law School, "enthusiastic about being directly connected to a case with a national scope and significance", are representing undergrads targeted by the RIAA."
Slashdot should really give posters an option to preview their post before they actually submit it. It would save people like me from submitting a comment with rogue words in it, for example.
Oh? They already do have that? Heh, sure enough, there it is...
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Call me crazy, But I think I see a PREVIEW button right next to the SUBMIT button.
Verizon quietly 'lost' the right for Ad stoppers on cell phones and text messaging (which bypass typical regulation and scrutiny...). Effectively used the courts to free themselves from parental assumptions and obligations. Verizon is an excessively immoral company.
It's an interesting development to see self-evident give way to hysterics as reach and scope was played with.
"It like someone either forgot to pay that judge off!"
There, fixed that for ya!
There is, go to fark or digg. Anon cause I already modded.
Thing is, you're relying on some Moderator having moderated it as 'off topic', which (a) might or might not happen, and (b) if it happens, might or might not be accurate.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful