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RIAA Tries To Appeal Order Allowing Internet TV Court Broadcast
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has appealed the order entered several days ago allowing the January 22nd hearing in SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum to be streamed over internet TV. Additionally, they've made a motion for a stay. I'm just a country lawyer, but as far as I know: (a) it's not possible to appeal the order, (b) it was procedurally improper and ineffective to file a notice of appeal, and (c) it was improper to direct their motion for a stay to the District Court Judge. Well, let's hope the arguments in the First Circuit will be streamed, too. Meanwhile, one commentator wonders why the tooth and nail opposition to broadcasting, since the professed aim of the litigations was to 'educate' the public?"
I can't wait for the RIAA to air out their ridiculous tactics and for the judge to laugh them right out of court. Would it be legal to record this and, say, put it on YouTube?
Those who anthropomorphize science and/or nature already believe in an intelligent designer.
Meanwhile, one commentator wonders why the tooth and nail opposition to broadcasting, since the professed aim of the litigations was to 'educate' the public?"
Because they mis-spoke when professing their aims. Or that they mis-spoke/typed/approved from paralegal when they filed this.
This whole ordeal is starting to feel like one of those theological arguments where a side insists on interpreting arbitrarily defined sections of text as immutable and others as requiring human context with themselves as the only interpreter. Interpretation may vary depending on the point they want to drill into peoples minds at the time.
Ice Cream has no bones.
My psychology professor used to say that people make up their minds first and then look for reasons to support their decisions. This way people can rationalize anything as the right thing.
The obvious purpose of the legal action was to spread fear and terror - like terrorists and serial killer do. Anyone out there, downloading a song, can be sued. There is no logic, no system - it's just random. This can strike fear to millions of people even though 10 people are prosecuted.
Of course, we want to scare and terrorize anyone who downloads MP3 is not a "good" reason. So, an absurd reason of educating the public is made up. This is not a rational or logical reason and we don't require the Greek style logical discourse method of justifying a reason (OK, I have Philosophy 101 knowledge of these things, please correct me if it's wrong). So, we hear absurd reasons for doing things. Maybe this is not the most straightforward example, but the war of Iraq's reason was first WMD and then liberation. You almost felt that the leaders were just trying to find any excuse to justify and rationalize their actions.
So, my point is why does anyone even bother anymore, questioning reasoning and such? People make up their minds about certain things first and build reasons for justifying them. So, let's not waste precious time and energy with snark remarks about educating the public and such. Just ignore them and focus on the matter at hand rather than going into illogical discussions about stated reasons for actions.
So often the message sent is, "you're educated if you agree with me." Truth does not mean very much to people like this. In fact truth, or at least the love of truth and the entire truth not for any agenda but for its own sake, was the first thing they had to sacrifice to become as sold to their own system as they are. The thing that (I believe) is often forgotten is that once people are compromised in this fashion, for any reason, they become "true believers" in whatever it was that compromised them and they give their allegiance to it. Most people are not entirely 100% themselves and are compromised in some way by ideas that did not come from a careful evaluation of available options. This is where the abuses and the underhanded maneuvers come from. That is, they come not from people who know they are doing something wrong and do not care, but from people who have an endless supply of rationalizations that they themselves believe.
Now why'd you hafta go and bring religion into this discussion?
Well, I'm not a lawyer but isn't it pretty much the modus operandi of lawyers who are paid insane amounts of money to toe the line in the interest of their clients?
If you ever want to know just how sleazy your "toe the line" lawyers can get, read this. It's an interview with a tobacco lobbyist. He's dying from cancer and decided to come clean on tactics. It's unreal.
So yeah, the RIAA lawyers being creatures of the same stripe, sure. Filing all this crazy stuff is absolutely par for the course. Remember - every single day the laws stay in their favor, that makes them money. If they file these motions and it takes a week or a month to sort through then they've done their job.
When you're dealing with a gigantic industry and millions of dollars every day, even a single five minute phone call to delay makes financial sense. Look at the SCO fiasco for another example. Baystar invested $50M in a dying lawsuit. Why? Delay. Every day there is any legal doubt over Linux is a day where spooked customers will go elsewhere. It was an investment, and one that has paid off many times over. These RIAA guys are just doing the same trick. Delay to keep the gravy train going.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Probably because it's in the best interests of their clients. Yes, public education is a stated goal of their campaign.. and these videos may have a benefit to that. But not by much - as these legal proceedings in and of themselves do not make for particularly compelling watching.
On the other hand, these videos would also assist defence lawyers arguing against the RIAA. There's also the potential for a 30-second sound byte of an RIAA spokesperson saying something stupid appearing on the 6 o'clock news. And the potential to pull short clips out of context (a la negative political ads).
On the whole, I think it's understandable but disappointing for the RIAA to be opposing this.
I am the maverick of Slashdot
As NYCL points out, you cannot appeal NONFINAL rulings of the trial court. Otherwise, people would be appealing EVERYTHING that happens in the trial courts, and the trial process would turn into an endless Dickensian jumble. A person has to wait until everything is over in the trial court before he or she can appeal. The RIAA didn't do that, so this "appeal" is doomed.
Right now, the RIAA's lawyers are looking stupid (even to themselves) and may be worried that their clients will be pissed at them for making such a silly procedural blunder. They'll seek to convert their appeal into an attempt at interlocutory review. The problem with interlocutory review is that it is EXTREMELY difficult to get (for the same reasons stated in the first paragraph). Very generally speaking, a person can only get interlocutory review if they can demonstrate that the trial court's decision was soooo bad that its consequence would screw up everything afterward. The appeals courts will bend over backward to uphold the trial court's use of its discretion. A motion for interlocutory review is a really bad in this case because it has virtually no chance of success.
This presents the really interesting question: Why is the RIAA acting so stupid? This appeal is a loser motion that will cost real money (and maybe elicit monetary sanctions) and will hurt the music company's public relations. Are the lawyers (not the client) making the decisions here? Is the client asleep at the wheel? Is the lawyer keeping the client in the loop so that the client can make informed decisions? Is the decisionmaker-client not any one person? Who is making the calls for the music company here?
Often rich ligitants seek to financially exhaust poor litigants by making tons of motions. That strategy doesn't make sense in this case, because Nesson's team is like the Borg. They'll eat that stuff up.
Generally, the strategic decisions are made by the clients and the tactical decisions are made by the lawyers. Maybe the lawyers reckoned that this is a tactical call that the lawyers get to make . . .
This is a high-order blunder by the RIAA. I'm just wondering why . . . .
The RIAA is, among other things, a joint venture formed by a bunch of music companies. The mandate of the RIAA, insofar as it is clearly expressed or understood, must be the product of negotiation and compromise and inertia.
The text of the appeal is:
===
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
)
CAPITOL RECORDS, INC. et al., )
Plaintiffs, ) Civ. Act. No. 03-cv-11661-NG
) (LEAD DOCKET NUMBER)
v. )
)
NOOR ALAUJAN, )
Defendant. )
)
)
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT )
et al., Plaintiffs, ) Civ. Act. No 07-cv-11446-NG
) (ORIGINAL DOCKET NUMBER)
v. )
)
JOEL TENENBAUM, )
)
Defendants. )
)
NOTICE OF APPEAL
Plaintiffs, Sony BMG Music Entertainment; Warner Brothers Records, Inc.; Atlantic
Recording Corporation; Arista Records, LLC; and UMG Recordings, Inc., hereby give notice of
their appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from the Order dated
January 14, 2009, authorizing the broadcasting of certain proceedings in this case over the
internet.
===
This text they've submitted isn't especially informative. It contains no grounds for the appeal, no citations of rules or statutes, and no factual background. I would charactise this want of information in a pleading to a circuit Court as "uncommon".
To answer the questions as to "can they appeal an Order", one must reach into the bowels of civil procedure for Massachusetts, and the statutes governing the relationship between the Mass. court of the Order and the Circuit Court. I don't know these laws, but the general principle is that one may appeal (i.e. a request for review of, with a view to altering, the decision of a lower Court) only determinitive decisions-- i.e. those that end the case. The reason being that interlocutory (i.e. pre-emptive) appeals lead to all sorts of procedural nonsense, most heinously gross delay and ultimately undermining the exclusivity of the Court of first instance (i.e. where the proceeding was started) to make determinations in an expedient, coherent and effective manner. It also has a psychological and financial effect on non-institutional parties (i.e. humans), who are subject to litigation fatigue and often have limited legal resources that are, I would argue, most effectively used in a single concentrated hearing of the issues.
The rare exceptions to the rule against interlocutory appeals would tend to be based on some sort of gross unfairness. For example, you may be able to appeal an Order that is effectively determinative, even if it is not procedurally determinative (i.e. where time is of the essence, and the lower-Court's Order will render moot any ultimate decision). For example, if a Judge orders that sugar remain on a ship, but leaving the meat on the ship will cause it to spoil, an appeal Court may issue an Order to have the sugar stored someplace that will preserve it. The other case that comes to mind is the patent unfairness of bias, such as a biased Judge making non-determinative decisions that nevertheless effect prejudice.
This latter point (patent unfairness--not bias) would have application and merit, if the RIAA were able to show that a public viewing of this proceeding would give rise to prejudice or, alternatively, that it would cause incidental harm. I doubt the RIAA has the legal wits to bring up that argument, and even if they did it'd be difficult to reach the standard for showing (a) the Judge's Order was improper and (b) the harm to the RIAA is outweighted by the benefit to the public. An appeal Court does not generally have plenary jurisdiction, but only has a certain scope to review and change an Order of the Court of first instance. Changing a Judge's Order requires overcoming the presumption that the Judge was incorrect, with respect to either in a factual or legal conclusion. Again, without seeing the reasons of the RIAA, we can only speculate as to the basis for their appeal. They'd almost certainly need a gag order already in effect to get the circuit Court to reverse the Judge's Order to broadcast the proceeding.
I suspect, based on what I've read here, that the RIAA is using this "appeal" as a fishing trip to delay the proceedings, and to punish the defendant with legal costs
Actually, what they don't want is hundreds of lawyers on the internet picking apart their case and e-mailing their findings to Harvard.... Because, even the RIAA can't stand a chance of an entire army of lawyers working pro bono.
What about the collateral order doctrine? See Lauro Lines s.r.l. v. Chasser, et al., 490 U.S. 495, 498 (1989). Granted, I think it will fail to meet the second prong of the test (the issue is too important to be denied review), but it is worth a shot if you really do not want this hearing broadcast.