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Judge Refuses To Sign RIAA 'Ex Parte' Order
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA just can't get enough of going after University of Maine students, but it appears that the judges in Portland, Maine, may be getting wise to the industry's lawyers' antics. RIAA counsel submitted yet another ex parte discovery order to the Court ('ex parte' meaning 'without notice'), in BMG v. Does 1-11, but this time the judge refused to sign, pointing out that there is no emergency since there is no evidence that records are about to be destroyed [PDF]. This is the same judge who has previously suggested the imposition of Rule 11 sanctions against the RIAA lawyers, accusing them of gamesmanship."
The RIAA are getting stupider by the minute. It's high time they learned that people aren't going to take this shit sitting down for much longer.
The more the courts resist their moves, the more people will stand up for their rights.
'Ex parte' does not really mean without notice. It refers to a legal proceeding where all involved parties are not present. Usually when one side is trying to get the judge to do something without the other party having a chance to argue their side. This is 'ex parte' because it's a John Doe defendant. And I'm pretty sure that it being 'ex parte' has nothing to do with this story, but something thought it sounded nice when they submitted the story. 'Ex parte' does sound nice.
How 'bout getting an interview with these guys? I think it would be the perfect opportunity for the **AA to put up or shut up with the community on their long term goals.
/.
No need for ad hominem attacks, et all, but an opportunity to speak on an issue that is mostly one sided here on
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
> 'Ex parte' does not really mean without notice.
Normally, no. In RIAA 'expedited discovery' cases, however, it _does_! They grab the discovery against twenty or so people and withdraw from the case immediately afterwards.
If you knew anything about our submitter, you'd know that he's a lawyer and that when the RIAA runs things, they go for "expedited" motions so that things really do happen without reasonable notice for the parties in question.
While you're correct about what ex parte (usually) means, in RIAA cases, I will defer to NYCL. He is, after all, an attorney who has been directly involved in cases opposing them and who has a nice FAQ on his website. It tells you exactly how they run these cases and why they habitually withdraw from the case once they get discovery in the ex parte suit and send people to their "settlement center" after that, making the entire process something most parties only find out about after the fact.
So no, he didn't include the words "ex parte" just because he thought they sounded cool.
- I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
How will this affect this case?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/29/2026213http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/29/2026213v
It seems that this industry cannot help but 'shoot itself in the face' from here on out.
I'm not a christian, but it reminds me of the 'tower of babel'.
How stupid can these people be?....nevermind, they have the US Gov't. backing them.
It seems we have a steep slope to climb to get back to our founder's (US Constitution) ideology on the subject.
I hope that the afore mentioned case (under FBI investigation) will make some waves.
If you can answer to this. fine. If not, I understand.
Keep 'Rocking' on', you are doing much good.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
With all that has been going on with these cases, there has been tons of money thrown down the drain through court costs and layers fees. Most of it on the side of the recording industry. They haven't made any dent in which accounts for anything. I understand going after legitimate pirates who attempt to profit from shared distribution. People like that need to be jailed. With the industries failure to create a viable model of distribution within the digital age, I start to ask are they spending all their time on lawsuits while hoping the internet is a passing fad? I think it's time they wake up to reality and take a good look at what is already available and accept it. Acceptance can be a bitch sometimes but what else can you do sometimes, right? RIAA, please just move on. This is getting embarrassing.
I thought there just had to be reason to believe the evidence was about to be destroyed. In cases of digital copyright infringement I would think this is always the case. Maybe they just need to find a more reasonable judge.
Please tag responsibly.
I didn't know TCP-over-moose technology had matured!
Anybody want my mod points?
This is really why there needs to be some sort of change to the way that trials are conducted. It's really an embarrassment that one side so often outspends the other by such a huge amount. And it's considered to still be a fair trial.
Seems to me moving loser pays system would make it a lot more difficult to abuse the system. Or potentially require the loser to pay the winner the cost of the winner's counsel plus the cost of the losers council as well. In cases where the loser had insufficient counsel it wouldn't add a whole lot but in cases where the loser brought in a lot of high priced attorneys to try and pull a fast one, they'd get a much large penalty. Of course require the winner to demonstrate that the size of the bill is reasonable for a case of that type.
I think that the Judge refusing to sign the order was perfectly reasonable considering both the spurious nature of the suits as well as the other nefarious dealings of their unlicensed "investigator" mediasentry. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/29/2026213
What I do wonder is if this goes where it looks like it's going to something resembling an organized crime prosecution, would any or all of the settlements still be valid? Or would a conviction for extortion and misrepresenting the facts be grounds for declaring the settlements invalid?
> And how many people are actually innocent?
Everyone is, until proven guilty.
(Though you have a great point about criminalizing large segments of the population for profit.)
You would not happen to be from the RIAA would you?
Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Convention
This is offtopic, so I made it AC.
Fun little new eZine there. Just fix the spelling in your link.
This is good to see. Judges starting to look into the tech of a tech issue. Way cool!!!
Here come the Judge! Here come the Judge! http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=1242
P.S. Old Rowan & Martin's Laugh In meme.
BTW mod's:
research before you mod me offtopic,. You youngsters may be surprised!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Sorry, but I am a conscientious objector. I do not share music, I refuse to buy any more CDs, instead, I rely on the massive compilation I collected in the 80s and 90s, and in the event that I just HAVE to have the latest Fall Out Boy single, I buy it on iTunes since I have the disposable income. But generally, if it's not on the radio, I refuse to continue to fund the economic terrorists that represent the RIAA and I pretty much eliminate "pop music" from my life as an objection to the RIAAs business practice. In effect, I'm a well-to-do Gen-Xer who votes with my wallet.
I take issue with this heap o' crap because the RIAA is trying to criminalize MY behaviour. They fight against fair use and try to prevent me from transferring my CD collection to my iPod. They fight to criminalize my sharing" or music between my own media devices... the two tivos and 5 computers I own and share within my home.
I abhor any and all court cases that imply that all potential "infringers" are guilty until proven innocent, as this represents a stereotypical assumption that the "criminals" are young kids who "rip off" the establishment through their deeds.
This straw man argument actually DENIES my ability to vote with my wallet, as the courts presume that criminal violations have undermined the RIAAs business, when in fact, my boycott of their goods contributes to their market failure. However, my "voting with my wallet" is misrepresented as a "crime against the RIAA" that has cost them loss of revenue.
Criminalization of a "loss of revenue" is an undue burden on our society and must not be tolerated.
There are many words in the dictionary that I would avoid. "Stupider" is one of them. Just pronouncing it is awkward.
The preferred way of expressing this idea is "more stupid."
(personally, I like "less intelligent")
"The Heath Handbook" has a list of the preferred comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs. The handbook's rule of thumb is that, if a word is one syllable, use "er" and "est," as in "tall, taller, and tallest." But . . . "Many adjectives of two syllables and all longer adjectives form the comparative and superlative by adding "more" and "most." Examples: alert more alert most alert ambitious more ambitious most ambitious I suppose your friend would choose "alerter" and "alertest," but he would be in a "peculiar" minority. Have him try to pronounce "ambitiouser" and "ambitiousest." You are permitted to chuckle as he struggles. Ted Nesbitt
Please stop! This is almost as stupider than... http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=568245&cid=23595209
And exactly how high did
How did this get modded up?
I smell buddy modding!
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
I could be wrong, but don't they send the people letters about the ex parte hearing (which usually don't arrive in time)?
So it's like they sorta/kinda try to give people notice, but they also try to high tail it out of court LONG before those people can DO anything with the letters.
But I thought they usually send them anyhow? Or am I confusing that with the letters they try to get universities to send? I do remember reading in your FAQ of how their litigation works that the first thing most people read is a letter saying something about a judgment against them...?
- I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
Judge = adjudicator. Judge != correct.
"There exists in a field in some US state at least one sheep which is black on the top" c.f. Heinlein's fair witness (somewhat borrowed from this guy).
Andy
Although in the urge to be noticed, audio level compression is used, so you can have a remastered CD MORE compressed than an MP3 of even moderate quality.
A good metric is to use RMS differences from the original CD to the MP3.
If you can get more compressibility for the same RMS, the CD is more compressed.
Sounds similar to how re-incarnation is illegal so that if anyone claims to be a re-incarnated monk they can whack them straight in jail.
I love how many flawed arguements are presented here.
- I don't buy CD's because that screws the RIAA (Uh, lots of indie music has nothing to do with the RIAA and you find those in record stores
- I don't listen to todays music (well, that sucks for you because there is a lot of good stuff!)
etc etc etc
There is a MASSIVE movement to eliminate the middleman (RIAA). Tons of websites are popping up where music is shared FREELY. Most of it used to suck but a lot of it is turning out to be pretty good.
With FREE software that lets bands remix their own albums, hardware being at an all time low, and the learning curve to use it getting smaller and smaller there's just no reason to complain!
I don't illegal download music... I used to... in fact I had so much illegal music at one point we added it up and I would do approximately 137 Million years in prison. Do the math... yes that was about 2.2 terabytes of mp3's. Don't ask... and yes there were probably copies of the same music in there.
I came to realize that 99% of that music I had I didn't like or listen to. I just downloaded it because it was there. A friend of mine turned me on to a lot of free bands... NOT INDIE BANDS that posted music on different websites.
Techno, Rock, Hardcore, Deathmetal, Soft Rock, Classical... etc was all there and it was GOOD. I mean REALLY good. Sure... I had to wade through the crap and that will always be the case but most of the sites do a really good job of recommending other music you'd like.
Internet Radio stations like Digitally Imported or Chronix Aggression also do a lot of the work finding good music depending on what you listen too.
If you like more mainstream music just go to www.shoutcast.com and listen to what they play. A LOT of it you can find cheaper digitally than you can on a CD.
Here's a few radio stations that I have to pimp because of their pure dedication to the music and not to some corporate entity... or at least I never hear them voice support... and their music is awesome. Most of these stations have multiple stations with different flavors! Did I mention it's free to listen?
1FM (Alternative Rock)
181FM (Alternative Rock)
ANTYRadio (Alternative Rock)
ChroniX Agression (Metal/Rock)
Digitally Imported (Techno)
Idobi Radio
KinkFM
Radio Paradise
SomaFM
Just go to http://www.shoutcast.com./ Also, if anyone reads this post your favorite sites for Internet Radio. You cannot fight the RIAA head on. You have to fight it with your wallet... but why suffer without music when you can do both!
...Indecently... Outlaw naked downloading!
If the media corps. could prove in court that 'loss of revenue' is a viable reason to sue, imagine what kind of twisted nonsense would become of it. Fair use, home recording, second hand media and any form of distribution below retail price would be considered 'loss of revenue'.
Why do you think the RIAA gets upset when record stores sell old review copies of a CD? Because to them, a CD sold on Ebay for a quid is a 'loss of revenue'. Since I buy *all* my CDs second hand, this is a big issue for me. Absurd as the argument may sound, litigating for life breaking sums on account of a dozen crappy sounding MP3 files is equally silly.
Essentially, this is an attempt to pass a law against being a 'bad' consumer. Free trade is dead, the 21st century is all about revenue protection.
From the RIAA? More likely he's its President. There's an UnNews interview with Mitch Brainwol discussing the "analog hole" (or "a-hole" as he calls it in the interview)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I've often heard it said that those in the legal profession are the ones who carry out responsibilities that were once held by kings and nobles. The RIAA's only fault is confusing kings and nobles with vindictive gods.
"ex parte" is from Latin and literally means "for (or by) one party", and refers to actions taken without the adverse party being present or represented, usually (but not always) due to lack of notice, sometimes just because the adverse party is not available or chooses not to appear. Usually attempts to provide notice are in fact required. Oh and IAAL too.
See also this dictionary definition
Sorry for my ignorance, but I don't know much about US law.
What I don't understand is the following: if providing copyrighted material for use by everyone is piracy, then what about the libraries? Are they also centers of piracy? Or do they have special waivers? I lived in a few countries where you could borrow CDs and DVDs from libraries. What is the legal difference between this, and downloading something from the net? I mean, from my perspective, as an end user, they are almost the same.
If you want copywritten material, buy a copy. Otherwise, live without it (or boycott it if you feel the need to protest.)
Or just ignore the law, along with the huge numbers of others who are currently ignoring the law, until it is changed into a form that is worthy of respect.
I've got zero problems with having Universal Health Care.
Grow up on the negro thing already. We're all Americans, and we're all human.
Go home...
Forget plain old wired internet, you wouldn't believe their wireless capability.
Do you have any idea how many "pringle cantenna" you can hang on a single moose?
Don't forget, Cavemen were "all wireless" way back in the day!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
I've heard that one RIAA lawyer became a judge in Colorado...
Fixed. Thanks. ;)
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Guess how socialized medicine will be paid for? With the money that corporations use to buy carbon indulgences from the government. You think $4 a gallon gas is bad? Just wait. Ideas have consequences. There is no such thing as free money.