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Florida Judge Smacks Down RIAA
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA is going to have to face the music in Tampa, Florida, and answer the charges of extortion, trespass, conspiracy, unlicensed investigation, and computer fraud and abuse that have been leveled against them there. And the judge delivered his ruling against them in in pretty unceremonious fashion — receiving their dismissal motion last night, and denying the motion this morning. The RIAA's unvarying M.O., when hit with counterclaims, is to make a motion to dismiss them. It did just that in one Tampa case, UMG v. Del Cid, but the judge upheld 5 of the 6 counterclaims. The RIAA quickly settled that one. When a new case came up in the same Tampa courthouse before the very same judge, and the same 5 counterclaims were leveled against the record companies, I opined that 'it is highly unlikely that the RIAA will make a motion to dismiss counterclaims,' since I knew they'd be risking sanctions if they did. Well I guess I underestimated the chutzpah — or the propensity for frivolous motion practice — of the RIAA lawyers, as they in essence thumbed their nose at the judge, making the dismissal motion anyway, telling District Judge Richard A. Lazzara that his earlier decision had been wrong. The judge wasted no time telling the record companies that he did not agree (PDF)."
I'd like to see a statement by the judge or other qualified individuals detailing why they didn't get sanctioned for this (mostly for curiosity -- the legal process is obtuse and interesting). It seems like the RIAA lawyers took a big risk in submitting the same info to the same court.
That is fascinating. The judge got a motion from the RIAA to dismiss the defendant's counterclaims, and he didn't even bother to give the defendants a chance to reply! Instead he saved them the cost for their lawyers and rejected the RIAA's motion to dismiss without causing any work for the defendants. I just wonder how unusual that is.
The plantiffs in this case are "Alantic Recording Group, etc. et al" so it looks like the actual RIAA member company/companies are on the hook for this.
Does "ATLANTIC RECORDING CORP., etc., et al.," (the people being countersued) include the RIAA & RIAA member companies?
Or did you just use "RIAA" in the same (wrong) way that frequently happens around here.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Just wondering: Since this is Judge Lazzara's second case already, I would think that he now knows more about the subject than your average judge, so it would only make sense to let him handle whatever over similar cases come anywhere near his court. Does the judicial system work that way, giving judges similar cases where possible, or are the cases handled by a random judge?
One movie that describes this perfectly, is "my cousin vinny". In the movie, Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid interprets a teenager who just happened to buy something at a store where 5 minutes later the clerk was shot.
The district attorney hired a wonderful lawyer that moved the hearts and minds of everyone. Fortunately, the kid's cousin, Vinny, the most inefficient lawyer on earth, happened to save the day by presenting the facts to the jury (and add a lot of fun with his irreverence).
One of my favorite movies, btw.
How about one better. There are probably dozens of ways to do this, I would do with with Windows Vista Premium / Ultimate 64bit and an xbox 360. But you can do it with Apple TV, myth et al. I would like to load all of my DVDs onto 1 server and just stream that shit to my tv. Fuck opening DVD cases. It would be much better to leisurely watch all of MASH, or Dead Like Me, or whatever 1 or two episodes when the mood strikes, and not having to remember which episode/disc I was on. And while I'm at it, the NFL doesn't provide a DVD yearbook for each team (apparently they hate money), but think of the possiblity of that, a whole lifes worth of passive entertainment and slice of culture really on one server at the touch of a remote. The RI/MPAA says that's illegal and I should be punished. For using technology that already not only exists but is trivial to setup (aside from the nusiance of DVD ripping, which itself could be far less of a mess) my livelyhood, my future should be in jeopardy? This is how market forces are supposed to work? To prevent the embracing of wealth and progress, largely for sake of the poor math skills and emotional convenience of people who obviously don't know how to manage their businesses?
The only just, sanction as far as I'm concerned, when such entities as the media companies overstep their bounds is to have the disputed properties placed in the public domain. The use of the works can still be tracked, and the companies that lost their rights to control the works can still be on the hook for all the royalty payments. If they're going to endanger people's livelyhood with their mistakes, it's only fair that their own hangs in the balance.
All the more reason for we geeks to give 'em the answers in a format they can understand. I do it all the time here at the shop. They go away informed, a certain RIAA member loses PC sales over it, and life is good!
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
A friend of mine (yes he is an attorney, but I like him anyway) described our legal system accurately. You line up both sides and through money at each other until one side gives up. He is amazing at his job...