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University of San Francisco Law Clinic Joins Fight Against RIAA

Posted by Soulskill on from the bay-area-reinforcements dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's litigation campaign has met resistance from the academic community before, but now it's been taken to a whole new level: the defense of RIAA victims who are not part of the college community. First the University of Oregon lashed out on behalf of its students, then it was the University of Maine's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic on behalf of its undergrads. Now, the University of San Francisco School of Law has taken the fight a giant step further. Its Intellectual Property Law Clinic's attorneys-in-training, working under the supervision of law professors, are going to bat against the RIAA by helping outside lawyers to defend their clients, pro bono. They reached out 3000 miles to get involved in Elektra v. Torres and Maverick v. Chowdhury, two cases going on in Brooklyn, NY, against non-college defendants. Two of the law students in the USF's legal program assisted in the research and preparation of briefs in these cases, opposing the RIAA's motion to dismiss the defendants' counterclaims. Thousands of honor students throughout United States law schools, most of them digital natives who actually understand the legal fallacies and technological missteps the RIAA is taking, and who can't wait to expose them, make a pretty good resource for the poor and middle class people trying to defend these cases."

1 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. you are going to lose by Grampaw+Willie · · Score: -1, Troll

    basically all this is about is a demand for the right to freely copy music and video

    that issue was settled when copyright law was established and it isn't going to change

    it doesn't matter that you are able to crack the encryption codes. what matters is that the encryption codes are there and that the DMCA forbids anyone to defeat those codes

    so if you crack the codes and crow about it you may as well yell "hey! come and get me" same as if you advertise rip copies of music/video over the net. defeating the encryption violates DMCA and if ya advertise rip copies ya may as well advertise "hey! come and get me"

    don't worry: they'll be there for ya. Enjoy.