Slashdot Mirror
NYCL Responds to RIAA Accusations
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "You may recall that when the RIAA decided to run away with its tail between its legs in the long running Brooklyn case against a home health aide who has never used a computer, UMG v. Lindor, it decided to take some parting shots at the defendant and NewYorkCountryLawyer, asking for 'discovery sanctions,' and blaming them for its inability to prove its case. Today NYCL gave them his response, accusing the RIAA lawyers of persistent misstatements of fact (PDF) throughout their motion papers, and of flouting the rules and misstating the law (PDF). Although the RIAA's motion papers took a number of shots at NYCL's copyright law blog, 'Recording Industry vs. The People,' NYCL confined his response on that subject to a single footnote."
Not so - very high levels of stress can have profound lasting consequences on health (both mental and physical). It is not good. Trouble is that it is hard to measure these lasting consequences.
You're thinking of a different case.
The RIAA voluntarily dismissed this case, and it's in that motion that they are seeking to impose "discovery sanctions" on Mr. Beckerman and Ms. Lindor.
One for expert witnesses, a couple for specific cases, listed on NYCL's blog:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#contrib
NYCL, I'm surprised. With all of the egregious conduct you're documented, I'm surprised you're just making a declaration in opposition rather than a motion of your own for sanctions under FRCP 11(c)(2). Is your reasoning something you can share with us, or shall we just watch the master in action? ;-)
Can't comment on that.
Here's a link to Rule 11.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Why haven't we seen NYCL here for a while? Court gag order or something?
I submitted 2 stories on October 28th, one of which got accepted, one of which got rejected. Since then there just hasn't been any Slashdot-worthy RIAA litigation news.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Maybe he needs a donation page?
Well this would be even better.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
That's a bit over reactionary. We should all know by now what happens when government gets over reactionary. Patriot Acts, FISA Abolition, Bailouts, Iraq Invasion. I don't care if any one thinks such things are justified, the government shouldn't be so hot to trot in any one's favor.
Money is the root of all evil?
moderation in your submittals is what makes me read every one you post
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I try to keep in mind the distinction between my blog and my Slashdot submissions.
In my blog, I just try to give complete information, so that lawyers representing defendants won't get caught off guard by anything that happens and will have a full set of legal resources to use in preparing their own arguments and legal documents. I.e. I post things that aren't really surprising or newsworthy, but they're just useful information to have in one place.
My Slashdot submissions are confined to things that I think the world should know about. However, Slashdot's editors don't always agree with my assessment and more of my submissions are rejected than submitted.
One thing I try to do, which I see in Groklaw, but nowhere else in the news world, is to give people access to the actual legal documents, so they can make up their minds for themselves. I hate reading news articles about legal events where the articles do not share with the reader copies of any of the underlying documents. In this day and age, where almost all federal litigation is electronic and there are *pdf files of every document, I feel there is no excuse for holding back on that.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
The RIAA voluntarily dismissed this case
Well they don't have the power to dismiss it at this stage, only the Court does. They've made a motion asking for the case to be dismissed.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Ray, When are you going to get an Amazon wishlist and cash in on all this slashlove you're getting?
All I want is for people to buy stuff for themselves, but buy it through my Ad Links, so I can get a commission. That will help to finance the work I'm doing. A good place to start would be with buying some of the nice, independent, non-RIAA, music I have listed.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
I'm just glad to see that the RIAA has a terrorist enemy...
It is they who are the terrorists. I'm just an ordinary lawyer trying to help protect the rights of innocent people from a pack of extortionist bullies who don't care about what is legal or what is right.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
My mother (special education teacher, now retired) had to "repair" a lot of kids who were home schooled. The parents invariably thought that they were teaching the kids enough "interpersonal skills", but it usually turned out that the parents themselves were socially defective & were incapable of judging whether their own kids had the proper skills to fit into society when "the time came".
I don't know you & your wife well enough to tell whether your family is an exception to that pattern,
That "pattern" you talk about is the exception. One of the things that made us interested in home schooling was meeting teenagers who had been homeschooled. We were impressed by their ability to talk and relate to us as adults and to have reasonable, well thought out conversations. I also know schooled teenagers like this, but with the homeschoolers it seems to be the norm rather than the exception.
From the "Home Schooling Review" done by my State government in 2003 http://education.qld.gov.au/publication/production/reports/homeschooling.pdf
In summary, researchers have found home schooled children are as well socialised as students educated in traditional State and non-State schools. Boyer (1993)4 researched the social stratification of children in schools by the lock-step age and grade approach to schooling. He concluded that by the time children are teenagers, they have little idea how to socialise with anyone outside of their peer group because of this approach to education. Tillman (1995)5 has documented that home schooled children participated in a wide range of extra curricular and community activities both with age peers and with those of more than two years age difference outside the immediate family.
Quite apart from that, most school education here (Australia) is woefully inadequate. Outside of mathematics, no training in logic at all in most schools. Most people in their mid-thirties or younger I've mentioned that to are astonished to find out that logic is a subject. The majority just think "logical" means "agrees with me" and "illogical" means "disagrees with me". Many people in our society are completely incapable of putting together a reasoned argument, or logically analysing someone else's statements. This is one reason why people are so easily manipulated by advertising and propaganda. School, for some reason, is not addressing this.
We've got high suicide rates, high divorce rates, high failure rates for people starting their own businesses. A significant portion of people in this society (and it's similar in the US) seem to be incapable of self-determination and maintaining long term relationships. Why would I want them to fit in well with that?
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
Writing a story about yourself in the third person? Crowing about how muted and controlled your footnote response was? Brag much? I miss the somewhat more.. objective and clean Groklaw postings. Oh well.
If your point is that PJ is a better journalist than I am.... I wholeheartedly agree with you.
What I'm doing -- cataloguing, documenting, and sometimes publicizing -- the details of the RIAA litigation campaign, is a job I wish I didn't have. I do it because no one else is doing it, and it has be done if we are to counter the RIAA's information monopoly.
If PJ wants to take it over, I would be delighted!
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful