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."

Comments

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm riddled with surprise.

Is lying to Congress illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[liegeofmelkor]

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

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[noundi]

Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

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

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[z80kid]

No. He lied in a sworn deposition in federal court.

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

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[dkleinsc]

Is lying to Congress illegal? Is it considered perjury?

I do not recall.

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[NicknamesAreStupid]

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.

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[noundi]

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?

Re:Is lying to Congress illegal?

[CelticWhisper]

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

Re:Somehow I doubt

[johanw]

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.

RIAA owns the Dept of Justice

[Anonymous Coward]

According to this link on Gizmodo.

Re:Somehow I doubt

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Steal this song

[jessica_alba]

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

Re:Steal this song

[liegeofmelkor]

Talk like that just gets you shot!

Re:Promissory estoppel?

[adamchou]

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.

Yes, they discontinued...

[erroneus]

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

Re:Promissory estoppel?

[Kjella]

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.

Re:Promissory estoppel?

[YourExperiment]

IANAL.... but my gf is =)

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

Re:RIAA Lied

[jank1887]

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

Re:And this is news???

[PitaBred]

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.