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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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Unfortunately, I believe their answer to the law not allowing this isn't to change their business methods, but to change the law. Here in the US, this seems to be the easiest and cheapest solutions -- the price of your average politician is too high for individuals but low enough to not make a dent in a corporation's coffers.
Do us all a favor the coming November -- look up the contributors to your representatives before voting, and strike anyone who has accepted money from the entertainment cartels or their lobbyists.
So fess up. Which one of you geeks up at Research Triangle Park left the cluesprayer on last night, because it's obviously leaking cluons all over the friggin' state.
I'm not saying you should stop the leak, by the way. I'm just curious as to the source.
Treat these subpoenas like they came from the mafia or a drug cartel. Make them go out of their way to do something crazy, like having proof.
They have proof*, the issue is whether the proof was legally obtained.
*for small values of proof
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
They have no proof, since it can not be verified it is correct.
Here credibility enters the stage. Only officers of the police (etc) have sworn the statement to forfill truthfullness.
Two possibilities:
1) This is a christmas miracle and a single Judge is turning out to be something other than a slimy evil-beyond-belief scumbag and we'll all live happily ever after...
2) She's just doing this to force them to bribe her again.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
About time a judge follows the law instead of following the money.
Actually in the U.S, justice is a whore, she fucks the highest bidder.
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.