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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."
This kind of behavior is the lawyer equivalent of turning the lights off while someone else is in the bathroom. They probably left the toilet seat up too. Grr. Argh... wet socks.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
It's nice to see someone like NYCL take such an in-your-face position against the RIAA's actions and come out on top.
NYCL writes in third person? Anonymous coward approves.
I decline to enter into a point-by-point rejoinder in defense of my modest foray into "blogging". Suffice it to say that (a) my law blog is irrelevant to the motion, (b) plaintiffs' counsel themselves rely upon the blog in the course of their legal work....(c) many in-house university counsels and student legal services offices refer their students to it ....... (d) many law schools and colleges use it in their curricula ..... (e) many
reputable organizations have found the views expressed in it to be worthy of further in-depth
consideration...... (f) it has been cited in law review articles.....(g) plaintiffs' counsel are not candid
about their real problem with the blog, which is that its existence interferes with their tactic of
attempting to conceal the litigation events and prior inconsistent statements they don't want
others to know about, from judges, litigants, and law enforcement authorities
Emphasis mine. He then goes on to give a specific example of why the RIAA hates his blog, basically because it exposes the stupid things they do to the world.
Must be a fun job to use the law to destroy evil. Kind of like that old movie The Rainmaker. If I were Ray Beckerman, I would feel like I were in a movie.
Qxe4
We here at Slashdot hope you get the RIAA to cover the bill for your hard work!
If not, just post a few more stories here and the ad revenue should cover it.
Here's a guy who has single handedly changed my opinion of lawyers. Certianly he has friends here, I'd give him a dollar. But at the same time his existence speaks badly of other lawyers. The question is: Why are there not more like him? We all recognise the RIAA are effectively an extorion racket. Why do more not speak up and take on these criminals? Leading by example may not be enough. If I were NYCL my focus would be converting more of my peers, raising an army against the RIAA. A one man battle is heroic and all, but sooner or later we all need help. It's time other lawyers saw which way the wind is blowing and get behind this leader.
Sounds like a pep rally cheer, doesn't it?
We salute you, sir.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
I know I shouldn't respond to this, but am I the only one that read it and thought most of it didn't sound half bad? I always thought public service was a good thing.
"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"
Maybe I'm thinking of a different case, but I thought Lindor decided to settle?
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Any judge these days who buys into the RIAA's bullshit as an absolute moron and should be impeached immediately for a lack of reasoning ability and common sense. These cases, all based on illegal investigations and no valid legal foundation, along with outright lies in the testimony of their sole "expert" at the ex parte John Doe joined subpoena phase should be stopped at that moment.
It is more than well known that the RIAA method is highly flawed and they have often demanded subscriber information for IP addresses that never existed in the ISP's log. Those are easy to filter out. The real damage comes when the IP address supplied is wrong, but valid to another user. The RIAA admits no error in their procedures and pursues many innocent people.
But the real blame is the idiot judges who seem incapable of understanding that the RIAA is using the court system in ways it was never intended to be used. It's the very same thing that Direct TV (may they rot in Hell) did only a few years earlier. These judges are apparently seduced that the RIAA members are losing billions of never proven dollars to filesharing and that somehow this must be redressed in trials that never seem to happen. I couldn't think less of the judges in too many of these cases, and am not alone in this regard.
There, that felt great!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
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? ;-)
--Somebody infect me with a
Personal interests
-Recreational distance runner from 5k to half marathon; beginner level student of Kung Fu.
http://beckermanlegal.com/attorney_profile
Being stressed, bashed, scarred, and abused is part of life.
True, and people should have some amount of thick skin. But...
When people stress others without caring for their well-being and (more importantly) without a valid reason and do so repeatedly, that's where it becomes chicanery and where I think it's reasonable to step in.
Whether we're talking about schoolyard bullies or corporate dragnet litigation, there should be some way of stopping chicanery. Lawsuits are not like an abusive spouse: you can't just divorce it.
Looked at the Skinnerian way, when people harass you, we need you to have some way of punishing them. Otherwise, as symes said (http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1022819&cid=25690283), you become stressed out with bad effects to your health.
Shame me for using anecdotal evidence all you want; I know what ten years of near-constant bullying can do to you. When you feel universally hated and persecuted, you don't have the most fertile ground for developing social skills; what you do have is fertile grounds for developing social anxiety.
When on top of the endless bullying your cries for help go unanswered, you learn that you can't rely on anyone when you're in need, that no one cares about your well-being, and that people in practice have the right to mistreat you however they want.
I do not want to be expected to tell my children that "this is a part of life".
Here's a guy who has single handedly changed my opinion of lawyers.
While he certainly is the prime example of fighting the good fight, and looks at bit lonesome, I wouldn't overlook the work of Eben Moglen. He's an excellent public speaker, and I remember seeing a video interview ('ish thing) where he talks about his past as a techie.
There's also Lawrence Lessig, who also shares some of the slashdot groupthink values. He's trying to change the world in a direction I'd like to see it go in. Maybe I want to go longer than him, but I still consider him a good guy and on my side.
Then there are the lawyers working for the EFF, and those talking at hacker cons. The name Cindy Cohen springs to mind.
Maybe they're not quite as much a superhero as Ray (he, not Cory, should be wearing a mask and cape :D), but they shouldn't be overlooked.
Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more?
One for expert witnesses, a couple for specific cases, listed on NYCL's blog:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#contrib
Mussolini: "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/
I felt a mixture of nausea, crushing fear, despair, and helplessness as I watched evangelist children being brainwashed into thinking the devil was controlling the evil government (until Bush, that is), that the government was trying to take Jesus away from them by taking him out of schools, and that their "time" would come.
These days I get the same feeling from reading Slashdot posts on the RIAA.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
I think it should be every American's duty to spend at least one year living outside the country (preferably while they're adult enough to learn something). It might put a small dent in the ridiculously provincial attitude that a lot of Americans have.
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
If everyone's kids had even the same chance of winding up dead, we'd probably be more hesitant.
And even if not (which is doubtful), as you say, it'll help with overpopulation.
Win-win imho.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Duty implies a moral obligation - not a requirement. Your father-in-law is right, everyone should feel morally obligated to serve their community. Your knee-jerk reaction is a result of the misinterpretation of what the definition of the word, duty, is.
The problem here in the good ol' US of A is that we have, as a society, been struggling for equal rights so long that a large majority of us have forgotten what a moral obligation to community is - we're too focused on whether or not we've been wronged in some way.
I very much appreciate your "pipe dream" footnote.
Aside from the deterioration of the US military through reorganization whose design goals seem to focus on saving money, military service just isn't rewarding any more. Veteran's benefits have been wantonly slashed, despite the hard evidence that the WWII G.I. Bill produced a renaissance by providing a free college education to everyone who served. The pessimistic focus seems to mirror the canard of welfare cheats. I leave the irony of military recruiters targeting the poor as an exercise for the reader.
That being said, I found my own service experience useful in that it forced me to grow up and to recognize that I had been squandering my potential. If nothing else, the US military will teach you just how badly it sucks to take orders from someone less intelligent that you are. I count myself fortunate to have realized this before the age of twenty, and to have taken action by the time I reached twenty-two.
Not only did I get a college education on my own dime, I found that there were more than a few loopholes in the educational assistance program. I tired of fighting the bureaucracy and just did it on my own. In fairness, I did use the VA loan benefit ten years later.
I think that the problem is the mistaken belief that the common work-avoidance mentality of service{men,women} persists into the post-service, civilian experience. Some minority will game every system. That doesn't make it wise to turn it off.
"Press to test."
(click)
"Release to detonate."
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
By day, he's mild mannered lawyer Ray Beckerman, but by night he becomes.... THE UNDERSIGNED!
There's no need to fear, Undersigned is here!
When criminals in this world appear,
And break the laws that they should fear,
And frighten all who see or hear,
The cry goes up both far and near for
Undersigned, Undersigned,
Undersigned, Undersigned.
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder,
Fighting all who rob or plunder
Undersigned, Undersigned.
When in this world the headlines read
Of those who's hearts are filled with greed
And rob and steal from those in need.
To right this wrong with blinding speed goes
Undersigned, Undersigned,
Undersigned, Undersigned.
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder,
Fighting all who rob or plunder
Undersigned, Undersigned.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I liked your answer to the blog question, but didn't you leave something out?
h) Plaintiff's counsel's objection to my blog is especially perplexing in light of Plaintiff's multi-million dollar advertising that seeks to convince the public that downloading a song is the moral equivalent of auto theft. Plaintiff also spends a great deal of money lobbying to influence Congress to pass ever more restrictive legislation. It is disturbing that Plaintiff's counsel can feel so threatened by a simple text-based blog that simply seeks to shed light on the actions of their respective member companies.
Hey,
Don't dump your Americans on us...
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"