RIAA Sues Stroke Victim in Michigan

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has now brought suit against a stroke victim in Michigan in Warner v. Paladuk. The defendant John Paladuk was living in Florida at the time of the alleged copyright infringement, and had notified the RIAA that he had not engaged in any copyright infringement. Despite the fact that Mr. Paladuk suffered a stroke last year (pdf), rendering him disabled, the RIAA commenced suit against him on February 27, 2007. Suing the disabled is not new to the RIAA. Both Atlantic v. Andersen in Oregon and Elektra v. Schwartz in New York were suits brought against disabled people who have never engaged in file sharing, and whose sole income is Social Security Disability. Both of these cases are still pending. The local Michigan lawyer being used by the RIAA in the Paladuk case is the same lawyer who was accused by a 15 year old girl of telling her what to say at her deposition in Motown v. Nelson. In the Warner v. Scantlebury case, after the defendant died during the lawsuit, the same lawyer indicated to the court that he was going to give the family '60 days to grieve' before he would start deposing the late Mr. Scantlebury's children."

How Long...

[FiniteElementalist]

How long until they start suing dead people? ... They haven't sued dead people, have they?

stroke me, stroke me

[User 956]

The RIAA has now brought suit against a stroke victim in Michigan in Warner v. Paladuk.

And by "stroke victim", they don't mean someone with a medical condition. That's just what they call someone who gets caught downloading a Billy Squier [wikipedia.org] album.

Ob Simpsons

[prakslash]

The article summary reminded me of The Simpsons:

Judge: Are you the Sony BMG lawyer who defended the root kit?

Lawyer: No, that was the Warner lawyer.

Judge: The same Warner lawyer who indicated to the court that he was going to give the family '60 days to grieve' before he would start deposing?

Lawyer: No, that was the Motown lawyer

Judge: The same Motown lawyer who was accused by a 15 year old girl of telling her what to say at her deposition?

Lawyer: No, that was the Michigan lawyer

Judge: The same Michigan lawyer brought suits against disabled people who have never engaged in file sharing, and whose sole income is Social Security Disability - a lawyer whose story that has just been posted on slashdot?

Lawyer:Dohhh!!

Too close for comfort

[AndrewNeo]

I just saw 'RIAA sues victim in Michigan' and thought crap, they're getting closer!

Re:Too close for comfort

[Anonymous Coward]

And next thing you know, with your website attached to this, and a nifty domain whois, they'll be marching through Saginaw to meet you.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Evil much

[schizoid4]

Let me get this straight: you hate the RIAA, so you want to tax me and give my money to the RIAA? Could you please stop hating the RIAA and hate me instead?