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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.
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.
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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
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?
Actually, Maine has a extremely advanced telecom infrastructure, especially given the low population density and sheer size of the state. In part, this is due to the legacy of having some very large call centers located in Maine in the past (MBNA, now Bank of America) and one of the more CLEC friendly public utilities commissions. And historically, Maine had more independent, private telephone companies than any place else in the US. Maine was the first state in the country to have every single public school and library Internet connected (56k or T1), starting in 1996, which is well over 1200 locations. Many of the high schools now have T3s and video classroom conferencing capability between each other and to the state University system.
In most towns over 10,000 people, there two or more competing broadband choices, and that doesn't just mean the ILEC (was Verizon, now Fairpoint) and a cable company. There are a number of regional CLECs providing DSL and dialtone services, and several rural areas with wireless ISPs that compete with FairPoint. The prices are not as low as you would find in MA or NY or CA, but it is available.
There is even one CLEC that has built their own fiber optic network in a Verizon/FairPoint city (Lewiston) that also has a strong cable company (Time Warner) and offers triple-play (voice/video/data) residential and business service and is expanding to two more cities in the state in the next year. You can purchase "lit service" multimegabit service in most of the cities, and leased dark fiber in the major areas, if you have the need and the budget.
As an example, you can get 10Mbit/sec of business class Internet pipe (fiber delivered) in the business districts of most central Maine cities from no less than 3 different carriers for about $1200/month. Typical residential DSL is about $40 for 2 Mbits.
That all said, there are still large sections of the state, in the towns and villages with less than a few thousand people, where you cannot get broadband at all, or you have only a single option. The state has recently setup a special program called ConnectME, funded by a telecom tax, to bring broadband to even the most rural of areas.
(yes, I live here. There is much that is still backward about Maine, but telecom ain't it.)
The mp3s (or more often DRM infested files with other extensions) are made from the same remastered masters as the CDs, so your MP3 will still be inferior to the CD.
And yes, the album version of Led Zepplin's Presence has more presence thatn the CD version, due to its superior dynamics and frequency response.
And how can a CD have less dynamics than an LP when CDs have a superior dynamic range? Bad remastering. I wish the labels would simply sample the old analog masters on the stuff that was originally recorded analog.
If you mix analog with digital (digital masters for LPs, or CDs of originally analog material) you get the worst of both worlds, the disadvantages of both mediums and the advantages of neither.
Vam Halen's first album was one of the few I could crank to 9 and be fooled into thinking the band was in the living room. I have yet to hear such a CD.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
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.