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RIAA Lied To Congress About New Filesharing Suits

Posted by timothy on from the honestly-they're-all-at-the-cleaners dept.

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."

10 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 liegeofmelkor · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    2. 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!
    3. 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/
    4. 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.

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

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

      --
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      http://www.tsanewsblog.com
  3. 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...

  4. 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.

  5. Re:Promissory estoppel? by YourExperiment · · Score: 5, Funny

    IANAL.... but my gf is =)

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