I have a few questions that I have not yet seen addressed. As I understand, if the RIAA decides to bring lawsuits, they would be tried as civil actions and not as criminal actions. As part of a civil action, the RIAA or an attorney on their behalf has the right to depose you and if you are found lying in said deposition, you would be guilty of perjury.
Would an individual who was the respondent in such a case then have the right to depose the plaintiff's in the case. For example, if I was sued, could I demand the right to depose the board of directors of the RIAA for two to fours hours each, depending on the number of questions I could generate. If this is legal, what is to prevent all 911 respondents from demanding this right. Assuming that each respondent uses one hour for their deposition, this works out over 22 business weeks of down time for each board member.
Does each respondent have the right to demand a jury trial? If each respondent could drag their trial out to one eight hour day (shouldn't be too hard if you call enough witnesses), this would work out to three and a half to four years of trial time just for this batch of respondents.
Since the subpoenas were filed in Washington DC (I believe the article said this, strange that it wasn't in SoCal since the RIAA and its lawyers seem to be based there), would any civil actions be required to be performed in DC?
It seems to me that simply by using whatever legal methods are at our disposal (to combat the methods at theirs) we could make the action so time consuming and costly that the RIAA would be hemorrhaging cash at such a rate that they would be forced to drop the majority of any lawsuits filed, not to mention what this would do to court systems that are working to process real crimes.
Also, could someone who has a little more knowledge of judicial proceedings comment on the above numbers in relation to actual court time spent. I made some guesses based on working eight hour days, five day weeks. In my experience (Severely limited), trials are not scheduled for every day of the week and less than eight hours is spent in court per day in an actual trial. How long to typical depositions take and what is the range of questions that can be asked in such a deposition. Also, what kind of options does a respondent have to make arguments. Would they be strictly limited to dealing with the alleged infringement that they are accused of or could they bring in separate information that sought to establish that the RIAA is evil, the DMCA is extravagant and that the proposed penalties for the actions are outrageous and that their copying is therefore a form of civil disobedience. The action might not win, but a respondent could use significantly more time if they were allowed to raise these issues.
Can anyone out there with more legal experience than I answer those questions?
I would also recommend CD Baby. I have bought a large number of albums. Generally after I have ordered some, i get a request from customer service asking how the shipment was and if I enjoyed it. On my last order, they shipped an artist that had a similar name to the one I had ordered. When they asked I said that they had sent the wrong album. The next day they mailed the correct album and refunded the shipping I paid to send the incorrect album back to them.
What a concept, a store that actually cares about their customers....
Why not July 4th not the first? Let a worldwide boycott go with Independence day and the launch of FairForShare. I'm already boycotting but it sounds good when its official.
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I have a few questions that I have not yet seen addressed. As I understand, if the RIAA decides to bring lawsuits, they would be tried as civil actions and not as criminal actions. As part of a civil action, the RIAA or an attorney on their behalf has the right to depose you and if you are found lying in said deposition, you would be guilty of perjury.
Would an individual who was the respondent in such a case then have the right to depose the plaintiff's in the case. For example, if I was sued, could I demand the right to depose the board of directors of the RIAA for two to fours hours each, depending on the number of questions I could generate. If this is legal, what is to prevent all 911 respondents from demanding this right. Assuming that each respondent uses one hour for their deposition, this works out over 22 business weeks of down time for each board member.
Does each respondent have the right to demand a jury trial? If each respondent could drag their trial out to one eight hour day (shouldn't be too hard if you call enough witnesses), this would work out to three and a half to four years of trial time just for this batch of respondents.
Since the subpoenas were filed in Washington DC (I believe the article said this, strange that it wasn't in SoCal since the RIAA and its lawyers seem to be based there), would any civil actions be required to be performed in DC?
It seems to me that simply by using whatever legal methods are at our disposal (to combat the methods at theirs) we could make the action so time consuming and costly that the RIAA would be hemorrhaging cash at such a rate that they would be forced to drop the majority of any lawsuits filed, not to mention what this would do to court systems that are working to process real crimes.
Also, could someone who has a little more knowledge of judicial proceedings comment on the above numbers in relation to actual court time spent. I made some guesses based on working eight hour days, five day weeks. In my experience (Severely limited), trials are not scheduled for every day of the week and less than eight hours is spent in court per day in an actual trial. How long to typical depositions take and what is the range of questions that can be asked in such a deposition. Also, what kind of options does a respondent have to make arguments. Would they be strictly limited to dealing with the alleged infringement that they are accused of or could they bring in separate information that sought to establish that the RIAA is evil, the DMCA is extravagant and that the proposed penalties for the actions are outrageous and that their copying is therefore a form of civil disobedience. The action might not win, but a respondent could use significantly more time if they were allowed to raise these issues.
Can anyone out there with more legal experience than I answer those questions?
I would also recommend CD Baby. I have bought a large number of albums. Generally after I have ordered some, i get a request from customer service asking how the shipment was and if I enjoyed it. On my last order, they shipped an artist that had a similar name to the one I had ordered. When they asked I said that they had sent the wrong album. The next day they mailed the correct album and refunded the shipping I paid to send the incorrect album back to them. What a concept, a store that actually cares about their customers....
Why not July 4th not the first? Let a worldwide boycott go with Independence day and the launch of FairForShare. I'm already boycotting but it sounds good when its official.