Daily Nonsense

Ray Beckerman, well known for his selfless defense of individuals sued by the Music And Film Industry Association of America otherwise known as the MAFIAA (doesn’t that seem fitting??), has published a paper in the American Bar Association’s Judge’s Journal that describes how the RIAA intimidates pursues it’s questionable legal actions against supposed file sharers.

Intended to educate, Beckerman discusses the legal and technical challenges in dealing with this type of suit.  I think that there are going to be tougher venues in the very near future where the RIAA will not be allowed the same kind of free rein and classic strong-arm tactics it has become vilified for in the past.

Judges warned about RIAA antics
The jaws that bite the teeth that gnash

By Nick Farrell: Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 8:33 AM

AMERICA’S TOP JUDGES have been briefed on the antics of the Recording Industry Association of America.

New York attorney Ray Beckerman has written a paper for the American Bar Association’s Judge’s Journal’s bumper summer issue.

Beckerman, who defends people sued by the MAFIAA, told judges about the finer points of case law relating to the wave of P2P cases.

Called Large Recording Companies v The Defenseless, the article explains RIAA lawyers’ method of working, which he thinks are getting dodgier as time wears on.

The bulk of the article looks at legal matters concerning venue, jurisdiction, dismissal, discovery, confidentiality, legal fees and default judgments.

One of the central issues which judges have faced in deciding on P2P cases are the huge amounts of case law and a lack of knowledge of the technical problems.

If the robed but not wigged ones read the missive they are certainly going to get a perspective that the music industry would not like.

L’Inq
Beckermanlegal.com

That link above leads to a copy of the article.

[Thanks, The Inquirer]

A colleague of mine had an interesting ‘run in’ with a Google Street View car this morning on his way to work and the Iranians apparently have discovered Photoshop, but don’t actually have anyone who can use it well.

Here is a photo and a link to my coworkers web site.  As you can see from the sequence of events, Google isn’t too keen on anyone noticing their nondescript Chevy with the big freaking mast on the roof.

Maxabee.com

And finally, pictures released by the Iran’s state-run media agency have been identified as being heavily Photoshopped.  It looks like the Iranians do have missiles, but just how many they have or how many they can get to launch at the same time is up for debate.  The article on boingboing is aptly titled Iran: You Suck At Photoshop.  Donnie Hoyle would be appalled at the amateurishness of this ‘effort’.

boingboing.net

If you don’t have access to some sort of collaboration software it can be difficult to schedule things with business associates, colleagues or even friends.  Without a product like Meeting Maker how do you work out when is a good time for the 5, 10 or even more people you need to sit down with?

Well, a new free on-line site, When Is Good, has devised a way that anyone with Internet access can invite basically anyone with an e-mail address to show when they are free for the next three weeks.  It’s kind of hard to explain, but so simple and so easy to use.  This app is well worth a look-see.

Click HERE for WhenIsGood.net

Are you one of the millions of computer users who keep private files on a USB flash drive and schlep that back and forth to work with you?  Do you perhaps have those great PortableApps and keep a copy of Firefox and Thunderbird on a thumb drive so you can check your personal e-mail and stock prices from your desk at work?

If so, have you ever worried about having all of that personal information available all in one place?  If you lose that thumb drive, you’re basically screwed.  Right?

Well, here is a handy little application that allows you to create a hidden and encrypted ‘partition’ on your USB flash drive that will protect your private data.  It’s easy to set up and easy to use.  Well worth a look.

Rohos Mini Drive

Wow!  Who knew what a trial it would become to find a copy of Mario Kart for the Wii.  My son Riccardo is coming to visit for a month starting next Friday.  My brother and I are working out a way for Riccardo and his cousin to play Wii over the Interwebs while he’s here.

After a little research, I found this page here which lists the Wii games which can be played over the ‘net.  After a bit of discussion, Mike and I determined that the kids would probably enjoy Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers Brawl.  Mike was incredibly kind and ordered a copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl for us while we both took on the onus of finding a copy of Mario Kart.

And what a search it was.  I tried at least 15 on-line retailers which included Best Buy, Toys ‘R Us, Amazon, EB Games, K-Mart, Target, J & R Music World, and the list goes on and on and on…  After exhausting the reasonable on-line options, that is to say, companies which would have sold me a copy at regular retail rather than an inflated price, I started to hit the local stores.

I essentially got laughed at in Fred Meyer, Target, and Best Buy.  I was treated with at least a little respect at Game Stop and Game Town, but the results in those places was the same, no dice!

As we headed up towards Costco I made a split second decision to stop in at what I feel is possibly the worst K-Mart in America.  I have never felt comfortable in this store.  The clientele and the store associates just seem too smarmy for my taste.

My preconceived notions were disproved in this instance.  The store has undergone a metamorphosis and was actually clean and well lit while the associate who was working in the electronics department was attentive and courteous.  And, he had a single copy of Mario Kart!  So, despite my initial misgivings my impulse stop paid a sweet dividend.  Kudos to the local K-Mart!

Yesterday, in an attempt to compete with Picnik and FotoFlexer, Adobe released it’s own online photo editing solution called PhotoShop Express.

With a modest set of features Adobe hopes to attract a new generation of users who will edit, store and share photos completely online.  The 2 GB of online storage is a little slim for a 10 mega-pixel camera, but it’s a start.

There doesn’t seem to be too much redundancy in certain parts of the Internet backbone.  A failure in the single cable that connects Palermo, on the island of Sicily, to Alexandria, Egypt, has resulted in tens of millions of Internet customers being left without connections.

It doesn’t sound too bright to me that there’s no backup for this.  The Guardian reports…

Faulty cable blacks out Internet for millions
· India and Egypt among countries hit by outage
· Damage to undersea connection to blame

by Bobbie Johnson, The Guardian,
Thursday January 31 2008

Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections.

The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online.

Observers say that the digital blackout first struck yesterday morning, with the Egypt’s communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet pipeline linking it to Europe.

The line in question runs under the Mediterranean, from Palermo in Italy to Alexandria in Egypt. It is not clear what caused the break. The cable is one of only a handful of connections, and part of the world’s longest undersea cable, 24,500 miles long, running from Germany, through the Middle East and India before terminating in Australia and Japan.

[Thanks, Guardian]

Nano-technology will eventually become commonplace for all of us, but I think it is the developments that are happening now that are worthy of special merit.  Scientists and researchers are forced to invent techniques and sometimes materials as they investigate this new, cutting edge field.

A tenfold improvement in battery life?

By Alex Serpo
Special to CNET News.com
Published: January 15, 2008, 7:35 AM PST

Stanford University researchers have made a discovery that could signal the arrival of laptop batteries that last more than a day on a single charge.

The researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium ion batteries–used in laptops, iPods, video cameras, and mobile phones–as much as 10 times more charge. This potentially could give a conventional battery-powered laptop 40 hours of battery life, rather than 4 hours.

The new batteries were developed by assistant professor Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

"It’s not a small improvement," Cui said. "It’s a revolutionary development."

Citing a research paper they wrote, published in Nature Nanotechnology, Cui said the increased battery capacity was made possible though a new type of anode that utilizes silicon nanowires. Traditional lithium ion batteries use graphite as the anode. This limits the amount of lithium–which holds the charge–that can be held in the anode, and it therefore limits battery life.

Silicon anodes have the "the highest theoretical charge capacity" according to Cui’s paper, but they expand when charging and shrink during use: a cycle that causes the silicon to be pulverized, degrading the performance of the battery. For 30 years, this dead end stumped researchers, who poured their battery life-extending energy into improving graphite-based anodes.

Cui and his colleagues looked at this old problem and overcame it by constructing a new type of silicon nanowire anode. In Cui’s anode, the lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter that is a thousandth of the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate to four times their normal size as they soak up lithium, but unlike previous silicon anodes, they do not fracture.

Cui said there are a few barriers to commercializing the technology.

"We are working on scaling up and evaluating the cost of our technology," Cui said. "There are no roadblocks for either of these."

Cui has filed a patent on the technology and is considering formation of a company or an agreement with a battery manufacturer. He expects the battery to be commercialized and available within "several years," pending testing.

Alex Serpo of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.

Well, some of Hillary’s staunchest (and we can assume richest) supporters are a little upset that she thought about coming off message and trying to appeal to a wider audience.  In what some participants called a ‘flurry of conference calls’ Clinton advisers agreed to stick to the original message.  It doesn’t sound like Hillary has too much control over her own campaign.  If her ’supporters’ are this actively involved in outlining strategy I wonder how much influence they have about making policy.

Clinton’s Supporters Question Her Strategy

By Anne E. Kornblut, Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 5, 2008; Page A07

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 4 — After an unexpectedly thorough defeat in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faced a barrage of second-guessing Friday from supporters worried that her campaign strategy could cost her the Democratic nomination.

In a flurry of conference calls throughout the day, described by several participants, anxious Clinton advisers agreed to stick to her original message — that only the former first lady has the experience to bring about change. And while they decided to increase the pressure on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) here, campaign officials were debating how hard to hit him on his experience level in the few short days until the New Hampshire primary.

So far, no senior Clinton advisers have been ousted for failing to produce a victory in Iowa, despite their spending many months and millions of dollars there only to see the candidate’s status as the Democratic front-runner vanish. But supporters outside the campaign were quick to question Mark Penn, the chief strategist, whose polling data suggested she could win in Iowa; Patti Solis Doyle, the campaign manager, who moved to Iowa to try to eke out a win; and an inner circle of operatives whose "inevitability" strategy failed to blunt the message of "change" that swept Obama into first place Thursday night.

[Thanks, Washington Post]

Google has introduced a new feature on its mobile versions of Google Maps.  It’s called My Location and it uses triangulation between cell towers to ‘pinpoint’ your location within 2200 meters.

I downloaded the beta version this morning and can verify that although it’s not really that accurate, it does work.  My Location puts me about 2 1/2 blocks east of where I really am, but that would be insignificant if I was really lost.

The My Location feature is available for many web-enabled mobile phones, including BlackBerry, Java, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices.  In my opinion it’s worth a look.

You can go to www.google.com/gmm from you mobile web browser to download directly into your phone.  The installer is also smart enough to know if you have a previous version installed and performs an update flawlessly.

My Rating:

Glenn Fleishman and Adam Engst collaborated on a great book back in 2003-2004 called The Wireless Networking Starter Kit.

Amazon has the book rated at 4 1/2 stars by customer reviews. Covering 802.11a/b/g and adding advanced topics like Bluetooth, Macs and PocketPC’s this book was a solid foundation for learning the technology of it’s time.

There are some gaps by today’s standards; it’s missing some of the newer technologies like 802.11n and some of the more advanced security protocols, but there is still a wealth of good information included and you can’t beat the price!

Here’s a link to their download page: Free Download

A jury of her peers has found that the woman accused of downloading and sharing copywrited material across the internet is guilty and has ordered her to pay $220,000 in restitution.

This verdict was met with shocked disbelief.  As one lawyer put it, “A verdict of $222,000 for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76?” he asked. “It is an outrage, and I hope it is a wake-up call to the world that we all need to start supporting the defendants in these cases.”  This is the sentiment of New York lawyer Ray Beckerman; writing in the Recording Industry vs The People blog,  he called the verdict “one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law.”

Jury Orders Woman to Pay $222,000 for Illegal Music Sharing

A Minneapolis woman has been convicted of illegally downloading and sharing copyrighted music over a peer-to-peer network.

Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld
Friday, October 05, 2007 10:00 AM PDT

A federal jury in Duluth, Minn., on Thursday ordered a Minneapolis woman to pay US$220,000 to six music companies for illegally downloading and sharing copyrighted music over a peer-to-peer network.

The 12-person jury said Jammie Thomas must pay $9,250 for each of the 24 songs that were the focus of the case. In their complaint, the six music companies that sued her had claimed that Thomas had illegally shared a total of 1,702 songs over the Kazaa file-sharing network, but they chose to focus on a representative list of 24 songs.

It looks like there is a law suit shaping up that is going to have the evil incarnate RIAA defending itself in court. An interesting facet of the issue is that the RIAA was the PLAINTIFF in this case. The case of Warner Music Group (WMG) versus Joan Cassin will bring into play the question of whether or not music that is in a shared directory equals an infringement of the copyright.

If I use a peer-to-peer file sharing program that allows me to share files stored in a folder on my computer am I in violation of the applicable copyright laws if I place an MP3 music file in that folder? I own both a book and a copier am I in violation of copyright laws? It’s kind of the same issue at stake here. Where does copyright violation start? Will the RIAA try to argue that OWNING MP3s is a violation of copyright law? I think not. Nor will they try to argue that the original rip of my CD into MP3s is a violation of copyright law (although that is actually how they would like to interpret the law!).

Since this case argues that Joan Cassin was illegally distributing copyrighted material by the virtue of it’s location on her hard disk drive, a finding in her favor could end up being a boon for everyone. With one loss in court regarding the foundation of the RIAAs legal arguments we might just see a day when music and musicians shake off the shackles of the RIAA imposed tyranny.

RIAA law strategy may be undercut

The case of Warner v Cassin will challenge the basic premise of the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against users of P2P systems – that the existence of copyrighted music in a user’s share folder is equivalent to infringing activity, Ars Technica notes. The case is scheduled for conference Sept. 14, the Recording Industry v. People blog notes. This is the second case to challenge the RIAA’s fundamental theory. A case not yet decided, Elektra v Barker, also centered on the issue. In Cassin, the RIAA responded to a motion to dismiss by citing section 106 of the copyright law, which states: “The owner of the copyright … has the exclusive rights to … (3) distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.” The RIAA asserts that having a file in your LimeWire public folder is the same as distributing it. The defendants argue that the RIAA must show actual infringement – that is, actual distribution, not just the potential for distribution. Ars notes:

First, the RIAA’s complaints do not allege any actual acts of infringement, which the Copyright Act says must take place in order for a case for infringement to be made. The only downloading that the RIAA can actually prove occurred was done by its authorized agent, MediaSentry. Since the RIAA cannot demonstrate that someone other than MediaSentry downloaded the file-or that the defendant ever illegally downloaded any of the tracks in the shared folder-it therefore cannot show that infringement actually took place. Looking at it from another angle, there are no allegations that the defendants actually engaged in a specific act of distribution at any point in time-which is why the RIAA’s boilerplate complaints refer to “ongoing” and “continuous” infringement.

The stakes are big. If the Barker or Cassin courts find against the RIAA, it becomes much more difficult for the group to assert infringement claims.

The labels would have to show actual evidence that someone downloaded a file from a targeted P2P user instead of just offering a few screenshots and a report from MediaSentry along with a boilerplate complaint.

Things are certainly looking grim for the RIAA this week. After having lost what could be a couple of important litigations they seem to be losing momentum and suffering from financial embarrasment.

• Tanya Anderson Files Class Action Suit Against the RIAA [Link]
• RIAA fails to pay defendant lawyer fees [Link]
• Boston Judge Denies RIAA Motion for Judgment RIAA Lawyer [Link]
• Foster Demands RIAA Post $210K Security For Fees [Link]

I found an article on Forbes this morning that tells of the Apple Records recent deal with Apple Computers iTunes music store to sell part of the John Lennon catalog on iTunes. There has apparently been no John Lennon music on iTunes until now. Much of the John Lennon, post-Beatles work has been available on other music sites, just not Steve Job’s corner store.

What struck me about the article wasn’t the fact that the two Apples have joined together (apple sauce anyone), but rather a comment in the article by the woman we all love to hate, Yoko Ono.

Below see the article and the comment I left. (We’ll have to wait and see if Forbes will print it).

ITunes Now Selling John Lennon Tracks

Associated Press 08.14.07, 6:41 PM ETLOS ANGELES –

Apple Inc. has begun selling downloads of tracks from 16 of John Lennon’s post-Beatles albums, including “Working Class Hero” and “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” on iTunes, the company said Tuesday.

The albums represent Lennon’s recording output while he was with Capitol Records, a unit of Britain’s EMI Group PLC.

While many of the late singer-songwriter’s solo recordings have been available for download commercially elsewhere, this marks the first time they have been available on Apple’s market-leading online music service.

Songs on two albums – “Lennon Legend” and “Acoustic” – were being made available for download exclusively on iTunes, the company said.

Video content was also being included with the purchase of some of the albums for a limited time.

The Lennon tracks will also be available without copy-protection restrictions and in higher-quality audio for $1.29 each. Regular versions are priced at 99 cents each.

“John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners,” Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, said in a statement released by Apple.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press.

[Thanks, Forbes]

My Comment:

Dear Yoko,

You plastic bitch. You say that “John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners,” But do you think that John would have loved the whole DRM issue that is causing so much ill-will in the music industry right now? Or do you, like me, secretly think that John would have been on the forefront of the revolution, playing against the rules, Like Prince perhaps?

Music deserves to be free (of the shackles of DRM)!

In a completely unexpected move, the Universal Music Group (the worlds largest music company), will start testing a program in which it will sell parts of its music catalog DRM free! The subsidiary of Vivendi will start making ’thousands’ of it’s albums and songs available through various online retailers. As a non-iPod owner, I can’t tell you how much this pleases me. I have only purchased a total of maybe 5 songs from iTunes in the past 5 years. This is directly due to the fact that I can’t use those tracks on my MP3 players without a laborious digital song to CD to MP3 process.

The kicker to this story is that the DRM free tunes will NOT be available through iTunes. It seems that this experiment on the part of Universal has two sperate parts. The first is to determine if the sale of crippled music is, in fact, harming on-line music sales. The official second part is that iTunes will be the company’s control group, if the DRM-free songs on other services sell more than the protected ones on iTunes, then Universal will know it’s on to something big. This, of course seems like hog-wash!

There are rumors that Universal is also trying to break Apples stranglehold on the downloaded music business. You might remember that Universal walked away from contract talks last month. The company wants music publishers to have greater flexibility over pricing their songs than Apple CEO Steve Jobs will allow.

Universal To Set Its Music Free

08.10.07, 12:48 AM ET

Are usage restrictions on authorized song downloads hampering the development of the digital music market?

It’s a widely held assumption that’s about to face its next key test: Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said Thursday that it will begin "testing" the sale of restriction-free downloads through a variety of online vendors later this month.

During its trial run, the Vivendi subsidiary said it will make "thousands" of its albums and songs available for download without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, restrictions, to observe consumer demand, price sensitivity and the impact on piracy. The songs will be sold in the MP3 format, which can be played on any handheld music player, including the market-leading iPod from Apple, as well as on any cell phone that can play music. The test run will begin Aug. 21 and will run through the end of January.

Universal’s move is significant on a number of different levels. As home to a sprawling roster of leading recording artists including Amy Winehouse, 50 Cent, Fall Out Boy, Prince, Elvis Costello and others, its U.S. unit sales last year that were roughly three times that of EMI Group, which began offering its catalog without DRM restrictions in April.

In addition, Universal is shutting out Apple’s iTunes Store from its trial run. Why? Because it wants to use iTunes as a control group against which to compare its sale of DRM-free downloads elsewhere.

[Thanks, Forbes]

An article on Information Week gives hope to Vonage customers everywhere. "We have substantially completed the deployment of workarounds for the two name translation patents and have completed the development of the wireless patent workaround," said Vonage chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Citron, in an e-mail message. "This is a significant step toward moving ahead with our business in the wake of the Verizon litigation."

Vonage also reported that revenue for the second quarter jumped 43% to $206 million while its adjusted loss from operations narrowed to $18 million from $60 million a year ago.

Vonage Cuts Losses, Develops ’Workarounds’ To Counter Verizon Patents

By W. David Gardner

InformationWeek
August 9, 2007 10:49 AM

Vonage Holdings reported Thursday that it has developed "workarounds" to key Verizon Communications(VZ) patents that were at the heart of potentially devastating litigation that the start-up VoIP firm lost to Verizon.

Also Thursday, Vonage reported that its revenue for the second quarter jumped 43% to $206 million while its adjusted loss from operations narrowed to $18 million from $60 million in the second quarter a year ago.

Previously, Vonage had been pessimistic about its chances of developing ways of overriding the offending patents so it could continue providing its service.

"We have substantially completed the deployment of workarounds for the two name translation patents and have completed the development of the wireless patent workaround," said Vonage chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Citron, in an e-mail message. "This is a significant step toward moving ahead with our business in the wake of the Verizon litigation."

Vonage, which had maintained that Verizon was seeking to put it out of business, fought an injunction that sought to limit its business to calls between its customers. Vonage, however, won the right to continue in business, although at a greatly reduced manner.

The VoIP company reported only 57,000 net subscriber line additions. Vonage, which offers several VoIP calling plans, said it finished the quarter with 2.45 million lines. A typical calling plan costs about $25 a month.

Vonage said it picked up some SunRocket subscribers, who were left without service a few weeks ago when the VoIP firm suddenly ceased operations.

[Thanks, Information Week]

Twice as many Atlantic hurricanes formed each year from 1995 to 2005, on average, than formed during parallel years a century ago finds a new statistical analysis of hurricanes and tropical storms in the north Atlantic. The researchers conclude that warmer sea surface temperatures and altered wind patterns associated with global climate change are responsible for the increase. [Link]

If I had to sum up the latest game announcement from the Lucas Arts world in three words they would have to be ‘pure, unadulterated, awesome.’ Basically, the principle, in my mind, runs that Lego is fantastic, Lego Star Wars I and II were brilliant and the Indiana Jones films were astoundingly good. Therefore a combination of the two should amount to nothing short of perfection. [Link]

"DeLorean Motor Company, a suburban Houston company that rebuilds DeLoreans, is laying plans to bring the car back into limited production. The last DeLorean rolled off the assembly line in Northern Ireland in 1982. But like Duran Duran, the Rubik’s Cube and other Reagan-era icons, the car retains a following. Of the 9,000 built in 1981 and 1982, about 6,500 are still on the road, according to James Espey, vice president of DeLorean Motor." [Link]

Belfast – After 38 years of conflict and the loss of more than 3,500 lives, a further milestone will be marked in Northern Ireland’s history this week with the official end of British army operations in the province. [Link] (p.s. Listen up BUSH – Peace is possible even in the worst of religious battle-zones {more on this later})

Alberto Gonzales’s apparent willingness to dissemble in order to protect himself or President Bush stretches back to at least 1996, when he intervened to prevent then-Gov. Bush from serving jury duty in Texas, the Post notes. Not until its second-to-last paragraph, however, does the Post article remind readers that by not serving jury duty in the drunken driving case Bush was able to keep his own drunken driving conviction a secret for several more years. [Link]

A total of 925,986 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 573,397 properties nationwide during the first six months of the year, up more than 30 percent from the previous six-month period and up more than 55 percent from the first six months of 2006, according to figures compiled by
RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine-based foreclosure information company. [Link]

Time Magazine, Why Ingmar Bergman Mattered. The Colbert Report has an occasional segment called "Cheating Death," which is introduced by the image of Stephen facing the hooded figure of Death over a chessboard. That’s a reference to the 1957 film The Seventh Seal, a medieval morality play written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Colbert, who switches chess pieces while Death is distracted, parodies the role of a knight (Max von Sydow) who puts his soul on the line to save a few lives during a season of plague. [Link]

The full complaint filed by Tanya Andersen against the RIAA is now available on-line as a PDF. [CLICK HERE] The initial response to this complaint is that this woman may have a chance at winning at least some of the specific issues listed in the complaint.

I’m very glad to see that someone has finally stepped up and said they were not going to take it any more.

I would love to see the judge rule in favor of Tanya on the extortion charge RICO charges.  The extortion charges were in Tanya’s original counter-suit filed in 2005.  Those charges may be combined with these ones, but currently this suit does not charge the RIAA specifically with extortion.  To me, that would be the most meaningful blow to the RIAA.

Here’s an article from TechDirt.

Are The RIAA’s Investigation Techniques Illegal?

from the put-to-the-test dept

Having victims of the RIAA’s shotgun legal approach fight back is certainly nothing new. In fact, having people charge the RIAA with racketeering for its actions has happened quite a few times at this point. However, this latest case against the RIAA is a little different. Filed by the same woman who charged the RIAA with racketeering two years ago, Tanya Andersen, the latest case doesn’t just focus on the legal strategy, but also on the technology strategy of spying on what users are uploading — again claiming it violates both racketeering laws and computer fraud and abuse laws. It notes that the process by which the company MediaSentry tries to figure out who is offering files isn’t just flimsy, it’s illegal.

Ray Beckerman has a link to the full complaint (warning: pdf file). It talks about how flimsy the evidence is, how it’s easily falsified, how MediaSentry knew that — and how it still claims that it offers positive identification on uploaders. The suit also points out that in Oregon (where the suit is filed), MediaSentry is not properly licensed as a private investigator, which breaks the law. Then, the suit goes in for the kill — focusing on how the RIAA proceeds to use this weak and flimsy evidence to bully and scare people into paying up, abusing their private information and not giving them nearly enough time (or information) to counter the claims. The filing also contains a rather detailed description of the specific actions the RIAA took to intimidate Andersen and her daughter — despite Andersen providing an awful lot of evidence that she was completely innocent of the charges. It’s quite a filing, and should make for an interesting case should it get anywhere. The RIAA will likely do as much as it can to get the case dismissed or buried (as they did with Andersen’s previous case), but so far Andersen has shown a very strong willingness to fight for what’s right.

[Thanks, TechDirt]

A quick search of “iPhone” on EBay returned “1696 items found for iPhone“. And iLaunch hasn’t even arrived yet. I can’t wait til’ Saturday when I’l lbe presented with the opportunity to buy an empty iPhone box or complete iPhone manual.