RIAA Subpoenas Neighbor's Son, Calls His Employer 593
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "To those who might think that I might be exaggerating when I describe the RIAA's litigation campaign as a 'reign of terror', how's this one: in UMG v. Lindor, the RIAA not only subpoenaed the computer of Ms. Lindor's son, who lives 4 miles away, but had their lawyer telephone the son's employer. See page 2, footnote 1." From Ray's comments: "You have a multi-billion dollar cartel suing unemployed people, disabled people, housewives, single mothers, home healthcare aids, all kinds of people who have no resources whatsoever to withstand these litigations. And due to the adversary system of justice the RIAA will be successful in rewriting copyright law, if the world at large, and the technological community in particular, don't fight back and help these people fighting these fights."
What to do about it? (Score:5, Interesting)
OK..
In all seriousness. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Please.. what can I do to help make this go away?
Probable Cause? (Score:4, Interesting)
The RIAA says that the hard drive they have is not the hard drive that was attached to the computer they are looking for, so they are looking at Richard Altman's computer equipment to see if he has the information they want.
Do they have probable cause to do this? I don't think so, but that is their argument.
-Matt
I don't download music anymore (Score:5, Interesting)
Now I've been a little scared of being hit by the MPAA for downloading Doctor Who and James Burke shows. Oh, wait...
boycott music for a while (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What to do about it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Great question. Hope you get moderated up to +5 instantly on that one.
1. The tech community can offer their services as technical consultants to the lawyers and individuals who are fighting these cases, preferably on a reduced fee or pro bono basis. There is a great need for people who can testify and advise about numerous issues that come up in these cases, such as, just to name a few, (a) hard drive forensics issues, (b) IP addresses and the like, (c) file sharing software, (d) the significance of metadata and hash marks, and (e) the unreliability of proprietary software that has never been peer reviewed as a basis for a lawsuit... i.e. all the issues on which the RIAA are trying to mislead the judges.
2. All tech companies who make profits from the internet should be organizing, and contributing financially to, legal defense funds to assist the RIAA defendants. Right now the only fund I know of that is currently operational is the RIAA legal defense fund operated by "Defective by Design" [fsf.org].
3. All tech companies should urge their industry trade associations to be assisting the RIAA defendants financially.
4. Everybody, tech community or not, should be writing to their federal congresspeople about this situation and urging legislation to curb the tide of litigation against ordinary working people.
HOWTO Stop RIAA Lawsuits in 3 Easy Steps (Score:1, Interesting)
There is no 2! Or 3! 1 Easy step!
Stop stealing music, and the RIAA will have no one to sue. It's that easy.
Unfortunately that's never going to happen in these grand United States, since we've started to devolve into a liberal entitlement society. US citizens believe they're entitled to everything, and nothing (like being unable to afford it) should stand in their way. We have people racking up massive debts to be able to get the latest trinkets with no thought on tomorrow.
People routinely ignore laws in the US. People routinely break the speed limit, ignore traffic signals, and otherwise put their lives and other people's lives in jeopardy solely to decrease their travel time by a few seconds.
If people would stop stealing music, the RIAA wouldn't have to work so hard to defend their music, and less innocent people would get caught in the crossfire.
If you want to stop RIAA lawsuits, you only need to take one easy step: stop stealing music. That's all there is to it.
Am I missing something? (Score:5, Interesting)
Say what you will about our thieving jackbooted fascist powertripping RIAA overlords, I'm having a hard time mustering up much sympathy for this guy. I disagree with much (if not all) of the **AA's tactics, but I'm just as rapidly running out of compassion for people who don't have the nerve to man up and just *do without* all their downloaded music and movies. At least the stoners have the nerve to stand right in front of the cops in a crowd of thousands and say "go ahead, arrest us all." I've yet to see a single person say "yes, I'm illegally filesharing and I'm willing to take the legal consequences as a symbol protest." Instead all I hear is "b-b-but it's not stealing, it's sharing! Everybody does it! Your business model is outdated and you're *mean*! Lower your prices! Britney sucks!"
Re:What to do about it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Persistence.
Alternative RIAA scheme (Score:2, Interesting)
Wander with me a moment if you will...
DRM - Change the DRM so that instead of trying to block copying of media it's more of a tattletale. Periodically it informs the RIAA what songs you have, when you copy them, whatever. I don't have this completely fleshed out but it would probably entail some sort of RIAA song registry.
Then the RIAA takes the same vague sources of data that they have now and instead of suing someone they send them a bill for a set reasonable fee for each song plus a 50% "You were being bad" fine. The consumer has several options upon receipt:
1. Pay the bill - Somehow a system of what music you have would have to be registered somewhere.
2. Refute the bill - Set up an arbitration process that doesn't actually involve a court. Some third party looks at the evidence and makes a binding decision. This process would have to have some mandatory fee to prevent everyone from clogging the system. Fee to be paid by the loser! So if you do have "stolen" music and you lose, you'd pay the cost+fine+arbitration fee. Ouch! But in the case of all these other people now being sued it'd be a lot cheaper. Ooo, and if they got their greasy hands on evidence that you tried to screw with the tattletale DRM then there would be an additional fine.
3. Ignore the bill - After a certain length of time the RIAA would have the option of pursuing it like any other debt. Black marks on your credit rating, "selling" the debt to third-party debt collection agencies etc. Or if it's some massive amount of songs/money then they could sue you in the appropriate civil court.
The end result of this? A new source of income for the recording industry. Potentially it could change the primary distribution model to one of mainly media downloads. (Why leave out the MPAA?)
For music the DRM could allow you to play the song a set number of times before you have to pay or delete it. I doubt the movie industry would go for that. Maybe a set number of minutes into the movie like hotel room pay-per-view used to be? "Warning! If you continue to view this movie you will be required to pay $XX.XX or you can stop now."
Re:The hyperbole has gone nuclear (Score:3, Interesting)
I for one do not wish RIAA members to die; I wish for them to become mentally disabled from all the coke they snort. That would be a much more fitting punishment for those jackasses.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How low can they go? (Score:3, Interesting)
They want "you" to know, as a 20-something poor-little-rich-kid zit-faced P2P user who has been caught bang-to-rights redistributing their member's content and has barely any moral credibility whatsoever, that there's pretty much nothing you can do about it
And what exactly can they do about it? Get a judgement against that 20 year zit-faced brat with no assets and little income? What does he have to lose? The time it takes to find a bankruptcy lawyer and file?
Re:HOWTO Stop RIAA Lawsuits in 3 Easy Steps (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:HOWTO Stop RIAA Lawsuits in 3 Easy Steps (Score:2, Interesting)
If you obtain the CD, but don't give them the 10 bucks, then they've lost 10 bucks.
It's actually pretty easy to see how it's a lost sale. If you were never going to buy it, why download it? The argument you always hear is "The music sucks blah blah blah." If it sucks so badly (and a lot of it does), then why does everybody desire to possess it so much? It boggles the mind.
Re:All you would have to say is "See you in court" (Score:5, Interesting)
Still, even accounting for "time is money", I know that I could cost a hellva lot more money then they could cost me, were they ever to come after me. And I have nothing to lose. I have few assets and little disposable income. If they beat me, hello Chapter 7. And they'd still be out the money.
If I did have money to lose then I'd run up huge legal bills defending myself. My lawyers get priority in any bankruptcy proceeding and I'd rather give them all the money then RIAA.
If everybody had this attitude they wouldn't be able to get away with this.
Re:How low can they go? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been involved and vindicated in court case (Same Name, Different Guy) that has a, shall we say, credit problem. I was taken to court by his creditors- even though I proved I wasn't the person they wanted.
I lost about 20 lbs in the time that it took to straighten out and felt like shit for the entire time.
So... what can they do? They can make you so miserable that you don't want to live.
At least 'justice' worked in my case... now if I could just win judgement against them for violations of the Fair Credit act....
Re:All you would have to say is "See you in court" (Score:3, Interesting)
but can you cost them a larger percentage of their revenue stream than the percentage that they can cost yours?
I dunno about you... but I am pretty sure the RIAA can take a million dollar hit much more gracefully and with less notice than I could personally take a thousand dollar hit.
Not that you are wrong, I agree... these are the sorts of tactics that could work. Just make them drop the case by dragging it out.
-Steve
Re:New Game: Spot the RIAA Plant (Score:3, Interesting)
One sure tip off is if the comment starts "No one hates the RIAA more than me". I think the RIAA trolls, here and in prior posts, are trying to do the following: (a) propagandize for their lawyers' positions, justifying their conduct, (b) take things off topic, (c) waste my time, (d) try to draw me out on undecided legal questions, and (e) discourage people from seeking legal counsel.
Re:All you would have to say is "See you in court" (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want to come after me then I'm going to stipulate nothing. I'm going to send you a merry paper chase with my interrogatories. I'm going to drag out any depositions that you may request to the point that you walk away with nothing useful. I'm going to file a counterclaim that you'll have to answer.
The point is that they are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars per hour on their lawyers and that if everybody did this then even RIAA would not be able to justify that sort of expense. Do you think the shareholders would approve of pouring tens of millions into a legal black hole when you are only expecting to cover a few thousand per case if you win and if the defendant has any money or assets that can be seized.
And if RIAA does get a judgement, then so what? You think civil judgements are the end of your life? Ask OJ how hard that civil judgement hurt him -- he didn't even need to file bankruptcy (always an option) to avoid paying it!
Make it massively unprofitable and sooner or later the shareholders of the RIAA companies will demand an end to this little adventure.
Re:What to do about it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:All you would have to say is "See you in court" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How low can they go? (Score:3, Interesting)
Only if you allow to be."
OK, two things here.
1. "It's extremely stressful, but only if you allow it to be."
Perhaps you are an enlightened Zen master and nothing ever gets you down, but for most average people, being sued is a huge emotional drain and and ruin health, livelihood, and relationships. I think it's naive and frankly insulting to say to people who are undergoing the stress of a lawsuit to tell them that they are just 'allowing' it to get to them. Step into the real world.
2. "It's a huge financial burden, but only if you allow it to be."
Demonstrably false. If you choose not do defend yourself, the judge will find in favor of the RIAA, and you will owe them tens of thousands of dollars. Perhaps you are a millionaire, and this would not be a huge financial burden. For most people, this means a kid not going to college. If you do choose to defend yourself, lawyer fees could easily several thousand dollars, even over ten-thousand dollars. For most people, this is a huge financial burden. Maybe not for you, but for most individuals, this would be 1/3rd to 1/2 of their yearly income.
"Given the community outrage and the back that major groups (the EFF for one) are backing the people being sued, it doesn't seem to have worked real well does it?"
I would say it's been extremely successful. How many people have they sued and eventually gotten to settle out of court? I'd bet most if not all. What community outrage are you talking about? Hostile postings on slashdot? Has that had any impact on the RIAA? Are they changing their tactics? Nope. What 'major groups' are backing those people being sued? I have news for you: the EFF is three people. It's not a 'major group' in any sense.
I don't see any of your supposed community outrage or major group backing as having had any impact whatsoever on the RIAA and their campaign.
Re:Nobody likes a bully (Score:3, Interesting)
Even labels in Canada have split from the CRIA [thestar.com], due to disagreements in the way they do business (including labels for larger acts like Rush and Sara McLachlan). The CRIA was founded to protect Canadian artists and companies, one of the reasons these labels left was because the CRIA was more interested in protecting US companies, than Canadian artists.
Is there anything to indicate the CRIA, RIAA, and the equivalent body in other nations are actually the same companies, though? Seems to me calling the RIAA an international organization is a bit of a stretch. They may have similar goals, but I don't think they're one and the same. Although, I suppose if they're comprised of the same corporations (Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner, etc), they might as well be one entity.
SSG101 -- Under the Radar Living (Score:5, Interesting)
You need one set of durable clothing. The basics: socks, shoes, underwear, long pants, t or a shirt. Additional according to target climate: zero or more additional pairs of cotton pants (for layering in the cold), zero or more cotton long sleeve shirts (for layering in the cold), zero or more wool or cotton sweaters or sweatshirts (for layering in the cold) one or more jackets suitable for the weather--a good setup for even the coolest climates is t-shirt, two long sleeve cottons, one cotton sweatshirt, one wool sweater, one cotton hooded sweatshirt, one field jacket or heavy coat--one pair of gloves, one hat (anything more effective than a baseball cap will do). Multipurpose: one rain poncho (rainproofing, doubles as a ground layer). One sleeping bag suitable for the target climate--get a compression bag to reduce bulk, Marmot makes nice ones. Additional survival necessities: steel fork, knife, spoon, Swiss Army or Leatherman style multifunction pocket tool, Toothbrush, toothpaste, baby powder (for feet), antibacterial ointment (for first aid), miniroll of duct tape, small roll of kite string (50 pound test), one large roll of thread (pick your color) and at least five sewing needles (you'll break a few unless you have prior proficiency in hand-sewing). You can fit just about everything (except the sleeping bag, which should come with its own tote bag) into a standard size backpack. Extra clothes can be folded up or secured, with the kite string, to one of the bags. State issued ID--preferably a US passport (not 100% necessary but makes random encounters with local authorities go quickly and without mishap). It may take a bit of practice to refine your particular carryall system.
That's about it. Choose an urban location in a moderate climate (ie. not the desert, not anywhere with heavy snowfall or severe cold temperatures) with readily accessible toilet facilities, a readily accessible supply of drinking water, but far enough towards the edges of urban jungle so that you can find a sleeping spot that's relatively secluded. You should be able to set up your sleeping spot in less than five minutes and pack up in the morning in a similar amount of time. Use the rain poncho to cover the ground where you will spread out your sleeping bag. If it rains during the day then you can wear the rain poncho and have what I used to call "free car wash day" but is now "free rain poncho wash day". If it rains at night, well, spend the night walking around in the rain poncho. If that's the worst of your worries--staying awake for a night--then life isn't so bad.
Note that this lifestyle requires staying clean. No heavy drinking as humans tend to become forgetful, at best, or outright stupid, at worst, when drinking is involved. Heavy drinking is the number one cause for torn clothes, dropped items, unfortunate encounters with the police, or falling asleep under the wrong tree and being awakened by the police (or worse). Heavy use of hard or debilitating drugs is also discouraged--habitual use of cocaine, crack cocaine, or crystalline methamphetamine will cause you to become involved with people who will only see you as a potential slave. Habitual use of marijuana isn't, in and of itself, terribly debilitating but be forewarned that "street demons" look for marijuana users and prey on them to satisfy their addiction to the harder drugs. Don't worry about showers. During the summer time spend time on beaches or at parks where you can sponge bath (a bathing suit comes in handy) off after a good sweat. Don't worry much about body odor--with proper self-care and maintenance it will eventually moderate itself.
Learn to deal with hunger. You will have days where you are hungry--COPE. As long as you have water the human body can go for, probably, months without a good meal. I can personally go for abou
Re:SSG101 -- Under the Radar Living (Score:1, Interesting)
Start with a cheap and reliable car with decent mileage and reasonable size with comfortable seats. In my case, this was a 93 Chevy Camaro Coupe (V6, not V8). 29MPG, built extremely well, easy to repair, cheap parts, decent power and very roomy with extra space available by leaving the hatch up partway. Add two large deep-cycle lead-acid batteries in the trunk with a switchable setup allowing the batteries to be connected, in an emergency, to start the car. The main purpose of the batteries is to power your gear.
Seven shirts, seven pairs of socks, seven pairs of undershorts, seven pairs of pants (preferably thick denim). One windbreaker jacket. One reasonably heavy coat if necessary in your climate. All of the clothes should be machine washable/dryable. Preferably stuff you don't have to separate into different loads. Two or three pairs of shoes (always have a change in case of wet shoes; you might need steel-toe shoes, too). Two towels (TH-HGTG was right).
Use laundromats to get your clothes clean.
To keep yourself clean, get a membership at a nationwide fitness center chain. Have a workout and then have a shower.
Income:
Keep your body clean inside and out and you'll qualify to donate blood plasma for an average of $50 a week for about 4 hours work, tops.
Buy stuff from second-hand stores and re-sell on craigslist and ebay. Ship using USPS with Flat Rate boxes being your primary method. Have a cheap digital camera for photos. The best kind are those which became outdated due to low resolution. You don't need anything more than 1.3MP. Look for high-quality optics. No pinhole lenses.
If you have a particular area you will stay in, a storage bay might be a good idea if you build a large inventory. Eventually, when you can go back on the radar for whatever reason (statute of limitations, maybe?), you may want to start a full-on business. It's totally an option.
Use library computers for your posts or do the following...
Communication:
Get a cheap laptop, preferably with a metal case. Toshiba Portege 7000 and 34xx series are personal favorites of mine. Mostly the 34xx series for the fact that you can clip a second battery to the bottom and run over eight hours at still less than 6lbs (and with the drain of an EVDO card, you'll need that capacity. Get an inverter or a DC-DC converter to charge the laptop from your battery bank. The DC-DC converter is preferred as it's more efficient (>90%) and has less background drain.
Sign up for the EVDO data card plan at your preferred carrier. Unlimited is the rule here. It's about $60 a month. Sometimes a lot less. This will give you nearly DSL speeds as long as you're in the coverage area. If you're close, but not quite, buy a cell booster and antenna and install it in your car.
Skype phone. Good for outgoing calls.
Cheap cell phone. You'll need it for eBay. Maybe you can have a plan with your data card? If that's the case, get a Bluetooth USB dongle and a Bluetooth headset.
Night parking:
Walmart allows people to park on their lots. Mind your manners and you'll be fine.
Food:
Don't do the fast-food thing. Ever. You can have plenty to eat by getting creative. If you want cooked food, build a cooker that uses the heat from your engine or use the heat off the dashboard when the sun is shining.
This is just a quick rundown and I know I've missed a lot of stuff, but I'm not a regular member and I'm pressed for time.