Slashdot Mirror
Mediasentry Violates Cease & Desist Order
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "On January 2, 2008, the Massachusetts State Police ordered MediaSentry, the RIAA's investigator, to cease and desist from conducting investigations in Massachusetts without a license. Based on what appears to be irrefutable proof that MediaSentry has been violating that order, the Boston University students who tentatively won, in London-Sire v. Doe 1, an order tentatively quashing the subpoena for their identities, have brought a new motion to vacate the RIAA's court papers altogether, on the ground that the RIAA's 'evidence' was procured by criminal behavior."
The law applies to you. The law does not apply to us.
Yours truly,
MegaCorp America (tm)
I'm not doubting in any way that there is proof they have violated the cease and desist. I think that sounds like something Media Sentry would gladly do for the RIAA, but when I click on the irrefutable proof link in the summary I don't see any proof. When I went go the "Exhibits (Cease & desist order, printouts)*" link, I can see the cease and desist order and some printouts labeled from early 2007 but nothing from 2008? Could someone point me in the right direction for the evidence? Thanks.
Actually, its much, much bigger than that. First, conducting criminal investigations without a license is a felony charge akin to impersonating an officer of the law, complete with jail time (up to 5 years I believe), and fines in the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars. On top of that, if they have in fact violated a court order they have basically just multiplied whatever damages are in place by a HUGE factor. Like, guaranteed jailtime, and adding another 2 or 3 zeros to their fines (or more).
The "irrefutable proof" is in the Exhibits (Cease & desist order, printouts) (pdf). Boy are you a lazy reader.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
There's a general rule that any subpoena has to have a good faith evidentiary basis. While most Slashdotters are aware that MediaSentry's "evidence" doesn't meet that standard, and the Oregon Attorney General certainly picked up on it, most judges -- in these ex parte discovery applications -- haven't. The fact that the evidence was procured through the commission of a crime may get Judge Gertner's attention, helping her to finally realize that the RIAA does NOT have a good faith evidentiary basis for its application.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Have you actually read the document you just linked to? It's far from clear how it shows that they were violating the C&D order. All those reports are from 2007, prior to the cease and desist. I think the real story here is that, since the C&D makes clear that Mediasentry was at no point licensed to operate as a private investigator in Massachusetts, any testimony referring to reports obtained through their unlicensed investigations should be thrown out.
The interesting question in there is apparently whether or not Mediasentry was employed by the RIAA or by a law firm; there's an exception to the license requirement for PIs employed by law firms, so the RIAA is claiming that they didn't employ Mediasentry, their lawyers did.
Bobb9000 - raised by the wolves,
Oxford education as phrased by the wolves.
HOLY COW, Bob9900..... you're 100% right. Yes I read the documents but I READ THEM WRONG, equating 2007 with 2008. I've published a correction. I apologize to all, and I am grateful to you for having brought it to my attention. The motion is based on past violations of the statute, not on violations of the cease and desist order. (However, I have been informed by a reliable source that MediaSentry has violated the cease and desist order, but do not, at this time, have documentation to back it up.)
MediaSentry was hired by the RIAA, not by MediaSentry. This was made clear in the declaration of the RIAA's Bradley Buckles in the UMG v. Lindor case.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
OK now I do have documentation of violations of the cease and desist order in January and February, 2008, subsequent to the issuance of the January 2, 2008, cease and desist order, in LaFace v. Does 1-17.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
IAAL.
You are correctamundo. I expect that Mediasentry's opponents will bring a much bigger pile of evidence into court than the RIAA has been bringing.
One brick does not make a wall, but a lot of bricks, properly presented, can make a really good wall.
To amplify on another very good point you made. The RIAA has been seeking to prove that a living, breathing, natural human being "person" has committed a copyright violation. In a civil case, that means that the evidence presented must 'probably' exclude everybody except their target. An IP address (along with some expert testimony) will at best establish the location where the internet transmission occurred. If a bunch of people live at the location, it may be impossible to say that any one person 'probably' did the bad thing.
On the other hand, the Mediasentry opponents need to prove that a corporate 'person' did a bad thing. A corporate person is composed of all of its agents acting on behalf of the corporation. If any one of those agents did the bad thing while working for the corporation (you don't necessarily have to prove which one), then the corporate person did the bad thing.
If the only people using the computer were Mediasentry employees doing Mediasentry stuff, then Mediasentry may have a problem . . .
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful