MORE ON THE RIAA: A COMMENT

it is very clear from rcent news that both the RIAA and the MPAA feel that they are not only above the law, but well fiounded and long standing judicial principles, such as burden of proof and burden of producing evidence should not be applied to their lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement. In addition, via some of their wishes about the ACTA treaty it is clear that they also want to violate human rights, namely privacy. Whther the right of privacy is explicitly stated in the US constitution is irrelevant, the bill of rights is not a list of rights given to the people by the US government but a list of certin rights made clear. In addition, California in its state constituion guarantees its citizens the right of privacy.

So, it's copyright infringement lawsuits without bound vs. american jurisprudence and the federal rules of civil procedure.

The courts are already overburdened, with the RIAA monoploizing court calendars across he nation, it can only get worse.





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stop copyright infringement; destroy judicial system and privacy

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property brings us an analysis of several organizations' goals for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which we've discussed previously. In particular, he points out the anti-privacy views of the Business Software Alliance: "While the ACTA itself is not public, the US Trade Representative has at least released the ACTA comments. While many of them are to be expected, such as the RIAA & co. wanting copyright filters, one item on the BSA's wish list really stands out: 'In a number of European countries one of the biggest impediments to efforts by rights holder to enforce their IP rights on the Internet is the overbroad interpretation of privacy laws by some European authorities.' They want ACTA to 'fix' that by neutering the privacy laws. Given the BSA's other questionable activities, it couldn't hurt to tell their member companies what you think of their participation. After all, organizations like the BSA exist in part to shield their members from bad PR." Full documents of comments from the various organizations are available at Public Knowledge.

more damage from the riaa

The amount of lawsuits filed by the riaa has swamped the federal court. In addition both the riaa and the mpaa have taken the position that they don't have to prove infringement to get damages.

If these organizations are allowed to continue they will destroy the American system of justice.

more news from the RIAA

In one federal matter, the RIAA lost it case. The court awarded over $100,000 in attorney's fees against the RIAA. An appeal was filed and as far as I know the award was upheld.

In another matter the RIAA sued a woman who didn't even own a computer. It decided to dismiss without prejudice so it wouldn't get hit with attorneys fees, but I believe that the court will disallow that.