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NC Judge Takes "A Fresh Look" At RIAA Subpoenas
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "When some North Carolina State students recently brought to the attention of the Court the apparent illegality of the RIAA's investigations by unlicensed investigators, they also caught the attention of the judges. After reading these new papers, District Judge Louise W. Flanagan, who admits that she's been routinely signing the RIAA's ex parte discovery orders in the past, has indicated that she is now going to take 'a fresh look' at the RIAA's tactics. She issued a stay of the subpoena, ordering NC State not to respond to it, and referred the motions to dismiss the cases to a Magistrate Judge for him to take that 'fresh look' at what has been going on."
Goliath falls dead. After a stunned silence, the crowd turns back to tending breakfast around the campfire, content to go on with what they were doing. All of David's friends celebrate, but the politicians and leaders simply begin plotting a new strategy.
And some people think CoS is evil?
Seriously: I'm glad to see that the courts are finally paying attention... to the law instead of politicians.
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The RIAA is using false pretenses to gather the names though. The biggest problem so far is that they are "jumping" cases... filing one case against "jonh doe" at an ISP to get names, then taking discovery from that case to create new cases against individuals NOT in a group... not legal in many places as it is false pretense to the court as well as wastes time tracking down what a federal court would consider trivial cases.
The other problem is how they got the IP addresses in the first place... they've never allowed judges to look behind the veil at WHO was generating these and the paper trail...was it obtained legally? That question is getting very murky and deserves investigation. when challenged they drop cases instead of provide the evidence. Judges are getting tired of being systematically duped. These are Corporate national lawyers this behavior is not acceptable at that legal level. Not telling the "whole truth" is equivalent to lying, just harder to prove.