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RICO Class Action Against RIAA In Missouri
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Atlantic Recording v. Raleigh, an RIAA case pending in St. Louis, Missouri, the defendant has asserted detailed counterclaims against the RIAA for federal RICO violations, fraud, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, prima facie tort, trespass, and conspiracy. The claims focus on the RIAA's 'driftnet' tactic of suing innocent people, and of demanding extortionate settlements. The RICO 'predicate acts' alleged in the 42-page pleading (PDF) are extortion, mail fraud, and wire fraud. The proposed class includes all people residing in the US 'who were falsely accused ... of downloading copyrighted sound recordings owned by the counterclaim Defendants and making them available for distribution or mass distribution over a P2P network and who incurred costs and damages including legal fees in defense of such false claims' or 'whose computers used in interstate commerce and/or communication were accessed ... without permission or authority.' This is the second class action of which we are aware against the RIAA and the Big 4 recording companies, the first being the Oregon class action brought by Tanya Andersen, which is presently in the discovery phase."
Here RIAA RIAA RIAA. Come and get me and my 200+ gigabytes of stolen music.
In the USA, we are supposedly innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Thus, you can claim you are falsely accused up to the point where a judge banks the gavel and declares you guilty.
At least, that is what my elementary school teacher taught me back in the 70's.
Bearded Dragon
Obviously File Sharer is interchangeable with witch here... VILLAGER #1: We have found a witch. May we burn her? CROWD: Burn her! Burn! Burn her! Burn her! BEDEVERE: How do you know she is a witch? VILLAGER #2: She looks like one. CROWD: Right! Yeah! Yeah! BEDEVERE: Bring her forward. WITCH: I'm not a witch. I'm not a witch. BEDEVERE: Uh, but you are dressed as one. WITCH: They dressed me up like this. CROWD: Augh, we didn't! We didn't... WITCH: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one. BEDEVERE: Well? VILLAGER #1: Well, we did do the nose. BEDEVERE: The nose? VILLAGER #1: And the hat, but she is a witch! VILLAGER #2: Yeah! CROWD: We burn her! Right! Yeaaah! Yeaah! BEDEVERE: Did you dress her up like this? VILLAGER #1: No! VILLAGER #2 and 3: No. No. VILLAGER #2: No. VILLAGER #1: No. VILLAGERS #2 and #3: No. VILLAGER #1: Yes. VILLAGER #2: Yes. VILLAGER #1: Yes. Yeah, a bit. VILLAGER #3: A bit. VILLAGERS #1 and #2: A bit. VILLAGER #3: A bit. VILLAGER #1: She has got a wart. BEDEVERE: What makes you think she is a witch? VILLAGER #3: Well, she turned me into a newt. BEDEVERE: A newt? VILLAGER #3: I got better. VILLAGER #2: Burn her anyway! VILLAGER #1: Burn! CROWD: Burn her! Burn! Burn her!... BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch. VILLAGER #1: Are there? VILLAGER #2: Ah? VILLAGER #1: What are they? CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!... BEDEVERE: Tell me. What do you do with witches? VILLAGER #2: Burn! VILLAGER #1: Burn! CROWD: Burn! Burn them up! Burn!... BEDEVERE: And what do you burn apart from witches? VILLAGER #1: More witches! VILLAGER #3: Shh! VILLAGER #2: Wood! BEDEVERE: So, why do witches burn? [pause] VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of... wood? BEDEVERE: Good! Heh heh. CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh. BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood? VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her. BEDEVERE: Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone? VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah. RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh... BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water? VILLAGER #1: No. No. VILLAGER #2: No, it floats! It floats! VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond! CROWD: The pond! Throw her into the pond! BEDEVERE: What also floats in water? VILLAGER #1: Bread! VILLAGER #2: Apples! VILLAGER #3: Uh, very small rocks! VILLAGER #1: Cider! VILLAGER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy! VILLAGER #1: Cherries! VILLAGER #2: Mud! VILLAGER #3: Uh, churches! Churches! VILLAGER #2: Lead! Lead! ARTHUR: A duck! CROWD: Oooh. BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically... VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood. BEDEVERE: And therefore? VILLAGER #2: A witch! VILLAGER #1: A witch! CROWD: A witch! A witch!... VILLAGER #4: Here is a duck. Use this duck. [quack quack quack] BEDEVERE: Very good. We shall use my largest scales.
I wonder how many times has this been pointed out that someone should roll up a RICO class action suit against RIAA?
The RIAA getting RICO-rolled... there's a youtube viral in there somewhere, I can sense it.
I look forward to your replacement of Slashdot car analogies with skydiving analogies ;)
there's gotta be a rat somewhere feeding information to the feds. i grew up in the old school, where made RIAA guys would never flip.
It was designed to protect people from the Music And Film Industry of America (MAFIA).
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I used FDR of raping me years after he died, and won. Thank you, Powerball Lottery!
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Would the FBI then say "All your base are belong to U.S.?"
Dear Lord . . . I actually understand that. I need to get out more. :)
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I used FDR of raping me years after he died, and won.
FDR raped you years after he'd died...?!
OMG ZOMBIESECKS!!!!!1111111
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I'm no legal expert but ...
Don't worry. Neither are the RIAA's lawyers.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
1) Introduce entire copyrighted catalog of RIAA as material evidence
2) Request public records of proceedings
3) ????
4) Profit!
sheer elegance in its simplicity!
under construction
I'd just laugh if they tried to sue me for 100,000$ !!! I'd just go shucks, and go on welfare or whatever they call it. Or work for a non-profit. And, so would most people. However, many many people will pay 3000-5000$ to make a problem go away.
I'd ask them for a unlimited license for 5000$ and immunity from all future prosecution and civil judgments capped at 1$ per TB. I'd laugh just as hard if/when they laugh.
I was merely pointing out that the RIAA doesn't adequately investigate anyone before suing them. Given the limited information we have so far, it appears that the RIAA knows that their methods cannot accurately identify an individual but proceeds anyway. Again, even if this suit isn't successful in the end, the discovery part will shed light on this.
And I was agreeing with you. I guess I should have included the ":)".
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
I changed my routers MAC address to DE:AD:BE:EF:BA:BE
The problem is, I forgot all about it for roughly 2 years.
Right up until the time I had to call my ISP about something. The tech on the other end asked me what kind of router I had and when I told him, he says "No, you don't have (brand x)". I'm thinking "wtf is he talking about?" because the router is, literally, right there in front of me. So we argued about it for about 10 minutes and I finally got done what I needed.
After we hung up, I realized why he was asking....
Now, I can't help but wonder whose router he THINKS I have? Who the hell would use DEADBEEFBABE as a default MAC address?