Slashdot Mirror


RIAA Lied To Congress About New Filesharing Suits

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "On December 23, 2008, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol sent a letter to the Judiciary and Commerce Committees of both the House and Senate, falsely representing to them that the RIAA 'discontinued initiating new lawsuits in August.' A copy of the letter is online (PDF). In fact, as many of you already know, the RIAA brought hundreds of new lawsuits since August. See, e.g., these 40 or so cases which just represent some of the cases brought in December." Maybe they're just taking a broad view of the world "initiate."

34 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm riddled with surprise.

  2. Is lying to Congress illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

    1. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by auric_dude · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, just par for the course.

    2. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by liegeofmelkor · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're thinking of lying BY Congressmen... that's business as usual.

    3. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by noundi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

      No but in RIAA's defence I think it's mandatory.

      --
      I am the lawn!
    4. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by z80kid · · Score: 4, Informative
      No. He lied in a sworn deposition in federal court.

      http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/e-gov/e-politicalarchive-Clintonimpeach.htm

    5. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

      I do not recall.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    6. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is illegal for people who testify before Congress under oath to lie (perjury). However, there is no law against organizations misrepresenting themselves in such a way. Corporations do not take an oath, people do. Therefore, if you can construct an organization that can misrepresent itself through its people without those individuals who testify under oath actually testifying a known (to themselves) falsehood, then you have a legal loophole. You might think that in order to construct such an organization there must be a conscious and concerted effort among the leaders to create such a deception, but that is not necessarily true. If the charter of the company is in line with its need for self-preservation and sustained growth, you might envision how its "misguided" practices might ignore the rights of others and the laws that govern people. There are other remedies for corporations, but they are treated quite differently (and more differentially) than people. This may not seem right because it shouldn't be. However, half of all murders go unsolved, and that is not right but it is true.

    7. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by OutSourcingIsTreason · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And if you're a president lying to Congress about Saddam Hussein trying to buy yellow cake uranium in Niger, and thereby causing thousands of deaths, it's legal?

      --
      "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Mussolini
    8. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by noundi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hahaha you have to love that fucking thing, what's the point of asking someone anything unless you can assume they speak of the truth!? My point is, why the fuck is congress wasting their time with this bullshit? Why not automaticaly put everyone under oath? You'd get a lot more shit done, instead of trying to lead a society with facts based on bullshit. Defectivebydesign, y'know?

      --
      I am the lawn!
    9. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hmmm... the whole Yellow Cake part of the story is an interesting one. Was it a "lie"? Did the US produce fake documents? Or where fake documents produced to mislead the US and they bought it? To actually try and claim Bush lied about the yellow cake you'll have to prove Bush knew the documents where fake but continued to try and pass them off as valid after the discover of them being identified as such.

      Given there's a huge administration that were actually doing the grunt work, it'll be hard to prove. Particularly since people like you love to claim the incompetence and idiocy of Bush. So, what is it? Is he some brilliant master mind who's capable of a massive scheme that fooled millions of people world wide or is he a bumbling idiot who's strings where pulled by other people (typically pointed out to be Dick Cheney by your lot).

      You can't have it both ways. Given the article linked to has a statement claiming they were incompetent, I'm guessing that's the occam's razor of this problem.

    10. Re:Is lying to Congress illegal? by CelticWhisper · · Score: 5, Funny

      Come on now. Everyone knows the cake is a lie.

      --
      Help protect civil rights from abuse by the TSA - visit TSA News Blog.
      http://www.tsanewsblog.com
  3. Re:Somehow I doubt by johanw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They have learned a lot from their teachers in the scientology cult, and are now perfecting it. It's about time that China (I can see noone else with sufficient power) drops IP laws altogether and forces the rest of the world to just cope with it. At least they have a threat the US fears: if they dump all their US dollars the yearly US inflation will reach 4-digit numbers.

  4. RIAA owns the Dept of Justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to this link on Gizmodo.

  5. Promissory estoppel? by Andy_R · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does this make promissory estoppel a defence in these new cases? (I didn't know what it was either until it was mentioned on /. a while back, basically it's legalese for 'hey no fair, they said they wouldn't sue if I did it'.)

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    1. Re:Promissory estoppel? by adamchou · · Score: 5, Informative

      IANAL.... but my gf is =)

      If my understanding is correct

      1) Promissory estoppel is used for contract law and there was no contract initiated by the RIAA and the people so it wouldn't be valid here

      2) The document linked to on Mr. Beckerman's site says they discontinued the lawsuits. They didn't specify a length of time that it would remain discontinued for so it'd seem to me they're free to start again when they wanted.

      I'm not trying to take the RIAA's side... just making a point. I still hate them with a passion.

    2. Re:Promissory estoppel? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Informative

      1) Promissory estoppel is used for contract law and there was no contract initiated by the RIAA and the people so it wouldn't be valid here

      Actually, it can apply if you make public statements or behavior that leads the general public to perform acts that'd otherwise be copyright infringement. It has happened with fictional works that have been presented as fact, when the author later tried to claim copyright infringement it was barred by estoppel (Arica Institute, Inc. v. Palmer, 970 F.2d 1067 (2d Cir. 1992).

      However, there is a considerable gap between the RIAA publicly admitting to changing legal strategy and the RIAA giving implicit permission to non-commercial copying of their works. As long as tjey don't give the impression that this is legal, whether infringements can be effectively prosecuted or not, I don't see that estoppel applies.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Promissory estoppel? by YourExperiment · · Score: 5, Funny

      IANAL.... but my gf is =)

      Yeah, my gf loves that too. Oh wait, sorry...

  6. Re:Somehow I doubt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    if they dump all their US dollars the yearly US inflation will reach 4-digit numbers.

    They can't start dumping anything because they have a shitload of dollars: If the dollar goes down, so does the Chinese economy. The same goes for most economies of course but China is by far more reliant on the dollar than others...

  7. Re:And this is news??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    But without windows, how would we know if the sky was blue?

  8. Re:And this is news??? by FilterMapReduce · · Score: 3, Funny

    But without windows, how would we know if the sky was blue?

    Indeed, the only time I ever see the sky is when I'm using Windows XP.

  9. Steal this song by jessica_alba · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine no possessions
    I wonder if you can
    No need for greed or hunger
    A brotherhood of man
    Imagine all the people
    Sharing all the world

    1. Re:Steal this song by liegeofmelkor · · Score: 4, Funny

      Talk like that just gets you shot!

    2. Re:Steal this song by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your attitude to women as property may be the reason you're looking for sloppy seconds ;)

  10. Re:RIAA Lied by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    and pigs are still in the aeronautical r&d stage

  11. I say we take up arms... by macraig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... and use good old-fashioned violence. The effectiveness of physical violence in achieving goals is much underrated these days. I seem to recall the American Revolution involved a bit of violence, didn't it, and we trumpet the success and worthiness of that violence in every classroom in the country, right? A second revolution in these not-so-entirely-United States seems a bit overdue. We have more than a few barons and overlords and Captains of Industry just begging to be introduced to a guillotine. I think the folks in Texas would readily understand this notion that some people just need killin' (http://bennettandbennett.com/blog/2007/11/texas-murder-sentences-probation-to.html).

    What sort of revolutionary vigilante violence might we visit upon the RIAA's clients and its sympathizers in Congress?

    1. Re:I say we take up arms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Windfall tax, 100%. Take the lawyers for every cent of their fees, and the RIAA for every cent of the settlements. And then throw them into Boston Harbour.

      Lite Brite images cause panics in Boston and you want to fill the harbour with sharks?

  12. Yes, they discontinued... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...then recontinued very shortly thereafter. I discontinue driving at every red light...

  13. Th Information Prohibition 1996-2010 by kulakovich · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Never has there been such a parallel in our history. The Prohibition in the United States, from 1920 to 1933, and the Information Prohibition, 1996-2010.

    A close second is the novel Dune and the parallel to the Clinton/Bush/Obama triumvirate.

    Enjoy your history humans, you're living it.

    ~kulakovich

  14. Re:RIAA Lied by jank1887 · · Score: 4, Funny

    a little rocket propellant, and anything can fly. :)

  15. Re:Nothing will be done to the RIAA by NewYorkCountryLawyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who would you take a case to? The DOJ? Oh wait, the DOJ and the RIAA are basically clones now.

    That is a problem, isn't it? That Mitch Bainwol's lawyers occupy key posts in the Justice Department.

    --
    Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
  16. Re:And this is news??? by PitaBred · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah, but lying to the senate is perjury. Every single one of their lawyers and executives should not pass go, not collect $200, and go straight to jail.

  17. Re:Somehow I doubt by adamchou · · Score: 3, Insightful

    China is by far more reliant on the dollar than others...

    depending on how you define reliance, that would actually be wrong. Since 2005, the renmibi has been pegged to a basket of currencies. There are however numerous other countries whose currencies are pegged to solely the USD still.

    but then again, in today's world economy, everyone is reliant upon the US economy

  18. Re:And this is news??? by NadNad · · Score: 3, Funny

    But without windows, how would we know if the sky was blue?

    Indeed, the only time I ever see the sky is when I'm using Windows XP.

    The only time I see blue is when I use Winders also, but it's unrelated to my desktop-pattern...