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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Feb 2nd 2004 10:02am





EFF, ACLU, Public Citizen Accuse RIAA Of Cutting Corners In Latest Legal Filings

from the due-process-needed dept

It certainly was no surprise that the RIAA decided to sue a large group of anonymous file sharers a couple weeks ago. However, Public Citizen, the ACLU and the EFF are now saying that the RIAA cut some dangerous corners in making their latest legal filings. In filing the John Doe lawsuits, the RIAA lumped all 500+ defendants together, and only showed which files a few of them were accused of sharing, and didn't give details on the vast majority of them. They also say that the filing unfairly lumped together a variety of people who had no connection to one another, who are accused of sharing completely different songs using completely different software. The groups also say that the RIAA does not ensure those accused of a chance to be notified and to defend their right to privacy (though, this claim is not as clearly explained in the press release). Basically, though, they're making the point that if the RIAA wants to accuse someone of doing something illegal, that's their right - but they should do it individually, and not lump together everyone in a single filing.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Expensive

    identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, Feb 2nd, 2004 @ 11:02am

    In other words, make the RIAA fill out a separate form for each and every person they wish to sue, fully detailing the software, files, dates, times, etc. to the point where it becomes too expensive to sue individuals.

    Not that I have a problem with that strategy...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Ed Halley, Feb 2nd, 2004 @ 12:22pm

    Hey, if each purported theft can have an attached value of tens of thousands of dollars, there should be no problem in actually spending a measurable fraction of that restitution on a solid case, right? If you seriously expect to win each theft charge, then you can't balk at the expense of the proper paperwork.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    suzi, Feb 2nd, 2004 @ 10:03pm

    Exactly! I agee 100%.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Morons

    identicon
    John O'Sullivan, Feb 3rd, 2004 @ 7:12am

    The RIAA lawyers' position seems to be "don't let the law get in the way of our lawsuits". Judges tend not to be sympathetic to such arguments. Apart from bullying individuals into settlements, the RIAA has managed to get nowhere with this scorched earth policy. Every time they've actually gone to court they've been bitch slapped.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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