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Judge Rejects RIAA 'Making Available' Theory
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected the RIAA's 'making available' theory, which is the basis of all of the RIAA's peer to peer file sharing cases. In Atlantic v. Brennan, in a 9-page opinion [PDF], Judge Janet Bond Arterton held that the RIAA needs to prove 'actual distribution of copies', and cannot rely — as it was permitted to do in Capitol v. Thomas — upon the mere fact that there are song files on the defendant's computer and that they were 'available'. This is the same issue that has been the subject of extensive briefing in two contested cases in New York, Elektra v. Barker and Warner v. Cassin. Judge Arterton also held that the defendant had other possible defenses, such as the unconstitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory and possible copyright misuse flowing from the record companies' anticompetitive behavior."
It all stems from them watching videos of Obama Girl including Saturday's SNL spoof of the Democrat Debates.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
Please note, I am not an Obama supporter (I don't support any of them actually.)
The cop can't arrest the prostitute until money has changed hands either.
Guys, time to toss those mod points a little further afield. Browsing at (3), I'm currently getting 17 (3+) comments, and 6 of those are from the submitter NewYorkCountryLawyer! Now I'm as interested as the rest of you in his comments, but my spidey sense tells me people are modding his comments up because of who he is, and less because of the content of any one of his comments. He's a conversational guy, and makes frequent small comments like the rest of us - we can't just mod up every one of em! Keep the conversation broad and varied - spread those points around!
Give me a break. You're saying that people that voted for Ron Paul (i.e. libertarians) are by definition not intelligent? It doesn't get any more ad hominem than that. You can disagree with people's views, but please, don't insult their intelligence. It will immediately cause them to not take you seriously.
Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
Or he was claiming that Ron Paul's ideas were so wackjobbish that as a result, by default, the only people who would appreciate them would be unable (due to lack of intelligence) to appreciate why they were so bad.
For example: Nazis. (Goodwin's Law, where are you?) One could argue that the only one who supports the Nazis are idiots. Not that only stupid people can become nazis, but that the only group, or the majority of a group who appreciates them would only be a group unable to appreciate why they were so bad.
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
I do know intelligent people that voted for Ron Paul (or at least claimed they would) in our primary, and I had a long and interesting discussion with them about a flat tax, and why it's not so great as it seems on the surface. Just because someone is intelligent, doesn't mean they can see through a particular brand of candidate bullshit.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
If Ron Paul was serious about winning with the platform that he stands for, then he would have run under the Libertarian Party. Trying to run as a Republican when you are against the Iraq War and in favor of ending the War on Drugs is just not going to be remotely effective. It won't get support or even enough press coverage to bring your ideas into the public debate. It'd be about as effective as Ann Coulter running for the Democratic nomination.
I don't agree with the good Doctor on very much but I think he's about as Republican as I am. Maybe once upon a time the party stood for what he stands for, though I doubt even that -- the expansion of the Federal Government that Libertarians like to complain about started under the very first Republican President -- Lincoln. Why the hell is he still a member of that political party? It stands opposed to nearly everything that he claims to believe in.
The "Goldwater Republicans" have as much influence on the modern day Republican Party as the Dixiecrats retain on the Democratic Party, in other words: None at all.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Maybe because that "quite a bit of support" has translated into zero electoral success? You can't blame the media for the voters rejecting Ron Paul in small elections (read: Iowa and New Hampshire) where he had the ability to campaign on an individual and town-hall level. I know it's popular in the Ron Paul camp to blame the media for all your woes but has it ever occurred to you that the voting public rejected his philosophy?
Next you'll say that it wasn't the voting public, just the Republican Party Primary voters, but that will take me back to my original point of wondering why he isn't trying to strengthen the Libertarian Party instead of pretending to be a Republican?
The only reason Ron hasn't gotten more support is because FOX, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, et al. have all spent the last YEAR keeping him and his message out of circulation or distorting it and marginalizing him -- even going so far as to actually say or imply that he had dropped out of the race for many many months now.And I'll go back to my original point: If you can't compete in the Iowa Caucuses or New Hampshire Primary with weeks to campaign door-to-door then how the hell do you think you are going to win a nationwide election come November? C'mon! I've seen Ron Paul supporters all over the place, even in my small city (Binghamton). I'd say he had a ten to one advantage in lawnsigns plus actual volunteers on the ground -- for all the conclusions that you can draw from that -- and yet he got a whooping 897 votes out of 13,730 cast in Broome County. Gonna blame that on the media too?
This whole primary process is designed to give a voice to the outsider candidates. Slightly easier among the Democrats (no winner take all over here), but still doable among Republicans (at least for awhile -- recall McCain in 2000). And yet he didn't gain any meaningful support. At what point do you accept the fact that your ideas were heard and rejected?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Here I thought it was, "If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you're a conservative at 40, you've sold your heart for a false sense of security." I say this as a 37 year old liberal, who knows, maybe I'll have a change of heart at 40. But I sure hope not.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton