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RIAA Lobbyist Becomes Federal Judge, Rules On File-Sharing Cases

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-call-it-a-new-strategy dept.

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "Last week, Washington, DC federal judge Beryl Howell ruled on three mass file-sharing lawsuits. Judges in Texas, West Virginia, and Illinois had all ruled recently that such lawsuits were defective in various ways, but Howell gave her cases the green light; attorneys could use the federal courts to sue thousands of people at once and then issue mass subpoenas to Internet providers. Beryl Howell isn't the only judge to believe this, but her important ruling is especially interesting because of Howell's previous work: lobbying for the recording industry during the time period when the RIAA was engaged in its own campaign of mass lawsuits against individuals. The news, first reported in a piece at TorrentFreak, nicely illustrates the revolving door between government and industry."

5 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's hard enough to be impartial abot things by snspdaarf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, I am pretty sure it would be grounds for appeal.

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  2. Re:It's hard enough to be impartial abot things by undercanopy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, I think the judge recruitment pool would be rather low if you didn't allow those that have either stood as plaintiffs or defendants as lawyers. Because if they're biased then so is the EFF lawyer too, right? Or is that just the lawyers on the side you don't like.

    we're not talking about a lawyer being biased, we're talking about a judge being biased. Judes recusing themselves from cases where there is, or even could be, a conflict of interest is not unusual. Her having been a RIAA lawyer creates a worthy argument for recusal, but i could argue the other way as you have. Being a lobbyist, though? That's a lot more conflict-y than just a lawyer trying to properly represent their client.

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    -- D-23994, Muff#2613
  3. Re:Raise a Child by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "My mommy is a porn company and my daddy is 4chan".

    Think of the children!

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  4. Re:It's hard enough to be impartial abot things by Gutboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How are the thousands of defendants supposed to do anything when they don't know who they are yet? Who was the opposing lawyer? Was there even one at all?

  5. Re:It's hard enough to be impartial abot things by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmm, how about Obama? He certainly wasn't raised in an upper class environment and yet he's got the top job. He had all the wrong stuff in his upbringing to be president anyway - raised by single mom and grandparents, moving around a lot, not a lot of money, etc. Similar story with Clinton, raised by poor single mom as well. There are similar cases if you look around, it's easy to point to lawyers and judges like this.

    Of course they didn't go to Generic State University, but you can get into prestigious universities without being a member of the prestigious classes, and you can get into prestigious post-graduate programs (law school, med school, grad school) even if you did not go to prestigious undergraduate universities.