RIAA ordered to shell out 100k for P2P witch hunt: related news

RIAA ordered to shell out $100k for P2P witch hunt

Nail down your security priorities. Ask the experts and your peers at The Register Security Debate, April 17, 2008

RIAA Lawyer Jumps Ship

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's top litigation lawyer, who has been personally leading the RIAA's litigation campaign for the past several years, Richard Gabriel, will be leaving his law practice, after getting a job as a state court judge for a 2-year term in Colorado. What this will mean to the RIAA's litigation machine is anyone's guess. Mr. Gabriel has personally argued all of the RIAA's main cases, including Elektra v. Barker, Atlantic v. Howell, Atlantic v. Brennan, Capitol v. Foster, Atlantic v. Andersen, UMG v. Lindor, and London-Sire v. Doe 1, and personally tried the Capitol v. Thomas case, the only RIAA case that has ever gone to trial. He was working directly under the supervision of the RIAA's mysterious 'representative' Matthew Oppenheim.

RIAA hits major setbacks in two P2P cases

RIAA hits major setbacks in two P2P cases Today, the Recording Industry Association of America was ordered to pay $107,834 as a result of a failed lawsuit against Tanya Andersen that accused her of illegal file sharing. The ruling marks what it is said to be the highest awarded compensation against the RIAA in terms of legal fees.

Verizon, Comcast Say They Are P2P Friendly

An anonymous reader writes "Verizon and Comcast announced they will not 'block or throttle Internet traffic delivered via peer-to-peer networks' — essentially proclaiming that they are now P2P friendly. The decision came as a result of a test conducted with Verizon and Pando Networks, testing the benefits of a P2P/ISP partnership. During the test, the amount of P2P content delivered to Verizon subscribers from inside its network grew from 2 percent to 50 percent. This shows ISPs need to work with P2P companies to improve content delivery and manage traffic. Verizon also announced it will be looking at ways to use P2P technology to deploy new features on FiOS TV." Just the same, read on for one approach to mitigating likely tightening restrictions on P2P network use.

RIAA Drops Case That Hinges On 'Making Available' Issue - Is RIAA giving up on these cases or just trying to avoid precedent-setting loss?

In the lawsuits that RIAA has filed against P2P users in the past, one of the major questions that has come up has been whether or not it’s illegal to simply make copyrighted files available for others to download. The argument of users is that there has to actually be something stolen, some proof that the file was downloaded, or there was no violation but RIAA has said that the violation takes place when the file is made available online. A New York court recently agreed with users on this issue which has caused other cases to go back to the courts for further review. Perhaps RIAA plans to stop fighting this particularly battle considering that they just voluntarily dismissed a case that had been pending for nearly a year in which the major issue was the “making available” point.

Jammie Thomas, RIAA cross swords in final briefs to judge

The RIAA and Jammie Thomas both filed their briefs with the Minnesota District Court court this week, bringing yet another phase of the drawn-out file-swapping case to a conclusion. Not surprisingly, Thomas thinks she deserves a new trial; the RIAA disagrees, saying that the jury instructions in the case were accurate. What's more, even if the "making available" theory turns out to be wrong and the jury instructions were therefore bad ones, Thomas is still guilty of "massive, deliberate infringement," says the RIAA.

How The RIAA Tracks College P2P

Latest News An anonymous RIAA representative has come out detailing the organization’s methods in seeking out file sharers on college campuses in the United States. In many ways the method is almost identical to the way one searches for music on peer-to-peer networks, except it searches a lot quicker.

Judge delivers fast smackdown to RIAA on P2P counterclaim

A federal judge in Florida has made short work of a 30-page motion by the RIAA to dismiss a P2P defendant's counterclaims. The action comes in Atlantic v. Boyer, a Florida woman accused of copyright infringement by the RIAA earlier this year.

P2P Traffic Shaping For Home Use?

An anonymous reader writes "My housemate uses an aggressive P2P client, that when in use makes the Internet unusable for everyone else connected to the network. After hearing about various ISPs shaping traffic to reduce P2P traffic, I was wondering if there was a solution for managing P2P traffic on a home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G available for hacking. Can Slashdot recommend a way to reduce the impact of P2P on my network and make it usable again?"

Inside the RIAA and MediaSentry

bsdewhurst sends along an interesting article about how MediaSentry and the RIAA identify file sharers. Since 2003, while the RIAA has been filing 28,000 lawsuits, the percentage of US Internet users using P2P for downloading music has dropped from 20% to 19% (there is no knowing how much of a factor the lawsuits have been). The list the RIAA uses for ISP takedown notices is about 700 currently popular songs that are updated based on the charts, so not liking the top 40 could save you. The list of songs tracked for the user-litigation program is said to be larger.

Judge Refuses To Sign RIAA 'Ex Parte' Order

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA just can't get enough of going after University of Maine students, but it appears that the judges in Portland, Maine, may be getting wise to the industry's lawyers' antics. RIAA counsel submitted yet another ex parte discovery order to the Court ('ex parte' meaning 'without notice'), in BMG v. Does 1-11, but this time the judge refused to sign, pointing out that there is no emergency since there is no evidence that records are about to be destroyed [PDF]. This is the same judge who has previously suggested the imposition of Rule 11 sanctions against the RIAA lawyers, accusing them of gamesmanship."

Florida Judge Smacks Down RIAA

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA is going to have to face the music in Tampa, Florida, and answer the charges of extortion, trespass, conspiracy, unlicensed investigation, and computer fraud and abuse that have been leveled against them there. And the judge delivered his ruling against them in in pretty unceremonious fashion — receiving their dismissal motion last night, and denying the motion this morning. The RIAA's unvarying M.O., when hit with counterclaims, is to make a motion to dismiss them. It did just that in one Tampa case, UMG v. Del Cid, but the judge upheld 5 of the 6 counterclaims. The RIAA quickly settled that one. When a new case came up in the same Tampa courthouse before the very same judge, and the same 5 counterclaims were leveled against the record companies, I opined that 'it is highly unlikely that the RIAA w

Andersen relentless in quest to nail the RIAA

Lory Lybeck, attorney for former RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen, has filed an amended complaint in her malicious prosecution lawsuit against the record labels and the RIAA. It's Lybeck's fourth attempt at crafting a complaint acceptable to the judge, and, if it is successful, it will set the stage for what Andersen hopes will be far-ranging discovery into the RIAA's tactics throughout its long-running legal campaign against P2P users.

ISPs Experimenting With New P2P Controls

alphadogg points us to a NetworkWorld story about the search by ISPs for new ways to combat the web traffic issues caused by P2P applications. Among the typical suggestions of bandwidth caps and usage-based pricing, telecom panelists at a recent conference also discussed localized "cache servers," which would hold recent (legal) P2P content in order to keep clients from reaching halfway around the world for parts of a file. "ISPs' methods for managing P2P traffic have come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the Associated Press reported last year that Comcast was actively interfering with P2P users' ability to upload files by sending TCP RST packets that informed them that their connection would have to be reset. While speakers rejected that Comcast method, some said it was time to follow the lead of Comcast and begin implement

Judge upholds $107,834 in attorneys' fees award against RIAA

One of the most closely-watched file-sharing cases is a step closer to an end. A federal judge has awarded exonerated RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen $107,834 in attorneys' fees, a figure that isn't exactly what either party wanted. Andersen, a single mother in Oregon, was accused by the RIAA in 2005 of sharing music over KaZaA. Andersen denied the charges, filed a countersuit, and the RIAA finally dismissed the lawsuit last summer. Once the RIAA dismissed the case, she sought and won an attorneys' fees award as the prevailing party.

RIAA hit with legal fees in P2P case...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will have to pay $107,834 in legal fees as a result of a failed lawsuit, a US federal judge has ruled. For two years, running until June 2007, the RIAA pursued a case against Tanya Andersen, accusing her of illegal file sharing; that case was dismissed with prejudice however, and Andersen and one of her lawyers were allowed to seek compensation for their defense. At points in the case, as many as six attorneys for Andersen were present in court.

RIAA suddenly walks away from old, contested P2P case

One of the oldest contested file-sharing cases has come to an abrupt and unexpected end. In a motion filed last month, but only uncovered today by Ray Beckerman, the RIAA has dismissed a two-year-old lawsuit filed against Joan Cassin. The dismissal is without prejudice, which means the RIAA could sue Cassin once again, but Cassin's attorney would likely argue that the label's recent dismissal is a final adjudication on the merits; more on that below.

RIAA Drops $1.65T AllOfMP3 Lawsuit, Claims Victory

The RIAA dropped its $1.65 trillion lawsuit against Russian music-download site AllOfMP3.com, declaring victory and calling the site “defunct and out of business� thanks to the RIAA’s anti-piracy lobbying.

RIAA doubles settlement cost for students fighting subpoenas

Challenging RIAA subpoenas can be costly, and not just because college kids have to dig deep into the sock drawer to pay lawyers of their own. Ars has learned that the RIAA's legal campaign against students is now built on escalating penalties; if you force the RIAA legal team into action, then end up settling, you could end up paying more than that initial $3,000. A lot more.

RIAA Throws In Towel On "Making Available" Case

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has thrown in the towel on one of the leading cases challenging its 'making available' theory, Warner v. Cassin, in which the defendant had moved to dismiss the RIAA's complaint. We have just learned that the RIAA submitted a voluntary notice of dismissal before the judge got to decide the defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint. It will be of interest to see if Ms. Cassin pursues a claim for attorneys' fees in view of recent court rulings that successful copyright defendants are presumptively entitled to an attorneys fee award, even if the dismissal came about from the plaintiffs' having 'thrown in the towel.'"

RIAA's Throwing In the Towel Covered a Sucker Punch

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA threw in the towel, all right, but was only doing it in preparation for throwing a sucker punch. After dropping its 'making available' case, Warner v. Cassin, before Judge Robinson could decide whether to dismiss or not, it was only trying to do an 'end run' (if I may mix my sports metaphors) around the judge's deciding the motion and freezing discovery. The RIAA immediately, and secretly, filed a new case against the family, calling this one 'Warner v. Does 1-4.' In their papers the lawyers 'forgot' to mention that the new case was related. As a result, Does 1-4 was assigned to another judge, who knew nothing about the old case. The RIAA lawyers also may have forgotten that they couldn't bring any more cases over this same claim, since they'd already dismissed it twice before.

RIAA Joins MPAA In Thinking Proof Isn't Necessary - Groups want to be able to file $150,000 lawsuits without evidence of a crime

I've recently highlighted several reports showing that the RIAA's method of identifying and suing P2P users is painfully inaccurate. This was further illuminated by the recent case of Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota woman who was originally ordered to pay $220,000 for making files available via broadband, but may now see a new trial.

RIAA's Legal Steamroller May Grind to Halt

Last year, Jammie Thomas became the example the RIAA held up as a warning to file-sharers. A federal judge ordered her to pay more than $220,0000 for making a handful of copyrighted songs available online. Now, the judge says he made a mistake, which could mean a new trial for Thomas and a serious setback for the RIAA.

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