Lawyer Asks RIAA To Investigate Bush Twins

tanman writes "After reading an article in the Miami Herald that said "[President] Bush's twin daughters gave him a CD they had made for him to listen to while exercising," a Florida lawyer calculated statutory damages of $1.8 million and has sent a letter to the RIAA asking that they 'display the same vigor in prosecuting this matter and protecting the rights of your rights-holders that it has displayed in enforcing those rights against other alleged violators.' From the letter: 'This is a serious violation of copyright. As you know, whichever of your member organizations that are right[s]-holders for the copied musical works may be entitled to statutory damages of $150,000.00 per musical work copied.'" Update: 06/22 18:55 GMT by KD : The lawyer in question has retracted his analysis and now says no laws were broken, probably.

Excellent

[MysteriousPreacher]

It's about time the RIAA took a stand against these music thieves. A colleague at my work who is known for having copied music went on a shooting spree. If the RIAA had dealt with him, I would not have had to step over bodybags on my way to lunch.

Inflation or greed?

[itlurksbeneath]

1.8 million dollars in damages for a 18 dollar CD? Methinks the lawyers calculators have too many places on the left side of the decimal place.

Re:Bush twins

[cbreaker]

Dumbass. It's got nothing to do with hating President Bush, and everything to do with showing everyone how stupid the RIAA is and how awful they've been to their own customers.

The Bush part is just a bonus.

Page Not Found

[mytrip]

Oh my. This is hillarious. Get them off to dubai with the haliburton execs to avoid prosecution.

RIAA vs Bush

[JeanBaptiste]

who in the hell do you pull for in this one?

Great story!

[cashman73]

If there ever was a slashdot story/thread that would make the RIAA look like the, "good guys," ... yup, them going after President Bush,... that would do it! :-)

And in later news

[Bearhouse]

The lawyer in question was found to be 'unreachable', although he did leave a forwarding address....in Cuba.

What a CRAPPY Gift

[madsheep]

So these are the daughter's of the president and their gift to him is a home made mix CD? Looks like someone forgot about Father's Day and had to think fast! In any event, while most the links are dead, how do we even know what was on the CD? Who said the music on it was actually copyrighted?

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[CantStopDancing]

come on, it's like nude-female jello wrestling - you just hope it goes the distance.

Re:Inflation or greed?

[OrangeTide]

1.8million dollars is apparently how much money the RIAA loses when you pirate a CD. I'm guessing they only catch 1 in 100,000 people, so the one chump has to make up for those 99,999 other people. or at least that seems like how the math is supposed to play out, of course it's insane.

Oldie but goodie

[frogstar_robot]

http://www.campchaos.com/blog-archives/old_cartoon s/napster_bad/ [campchaos.com]

I'm confused...

[wooden pickle]

Can't Gonzales just fire this guy for "performance reasons"?

The really funny thing...

[ajenteks]

Burning a mix CD? For a Father's Day gift? Isn't that the college equivalent to macaroni art!?

sure you laugh

[circletimessquare]

but these poor women have had poor parenting. these teenaged girls have had poor parental guidance and roll models. it's easy for YOU who have had parents that imbued you with some intelligence, a sense of decency... would you laugh so hard if YOUR dad was GW Bush? i don't think so

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Lurker2288]

I think this falls under the 'Aliens versus Predator' precept. "Whoever wins...we lose."

Re:Hit that

[Cheapy]

You take the one on the left. I'll take the one on the right. Be sure to "hit" yours hard.

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Joebert]

Thankyou for ruining Jello wrestling for me.

Re:Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with you liberals is that you think everybody is equal, and that it should always be that way. Not so. GW Bush and his daughters are rich, because they are good, brave, and courageous. They are literally better people than poor people. They wouldn't be rich otherwise.

Wisdom is the skill of knowing what to overlook. Other rich people, who are similarly better people than poor people, know this skill of wisdom. This explains perfectly why rich people overlook other rich people's crimes. It's because they are WISE, you impoverished ignoramous!

The important thing to remember here is that rich people have NOTHING against poor people. If it weren't for the fact that poor people don't have any money, they could be enjoying the very same privileges that rich people enjoy.

And that's how we conservatives REALLY feel about the subject. Fuck Y'all!

Re:What a CRAPPY Gift

[spun]

On the other hand, their dad is the President. What could you give him that he didn't already have access to?

A conscience? Honor? Integrity? A coupon for some plastic surgery to tone down those big flappy ears?

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[markbt73]

Easy - Tell Bush that the RIAA funds terr'rists.

(but let me move out of Los Angeles first.)

Re:The leftist revolution of the sub-humans contin

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux users are filthy and disgusting.

I highly doubt the bush twins use linux.

Dear RIAA,

[Trailer Trash]

"I forgot to mention in my last letter that this "George Bush" is a single paraplegic grandmother who is raising her own grandkids with her social security checks."

There, *now* they'll be interested in pursuing this one.

Re:Perfectly reasonable...

[Keith_Beef]

Caption under the photo at the start of the article:

How's $54 million for a dry cleaning bill? A Washington, D.C., judge is suing an area dry cleaning business for losing a pair of his trousers. The business owners claim they have his pants, but he's pressing ahead with his suit. (AP Photo )

If I had been the plaintiff in that case, I would have sued for "promise of breeches".

Beef.

Re:Must be a slow news day...

[hotdiggitydawg]

But the RIAA can hardly claim they lack the resources to prosecute the President's daughter when they are going after John Doe's, who for all they know, are dead broke.

Is it just me, or is the final word in that sentence superfluous [theregister.co.uk]?

Jack Thompson?

[ObiWonKanblomi]

The attention-whore Florida attorney...

Hold on... has Jack Thompson moved on from gaming?

Re:Excellent

[Perseid]

Oh, come now. I know Visual Basic has its detractors but I doubt it's actually tried to kill anyone.

Careful Now

[WED Fan]

Careful now, all of you Slashdotties are going to be grossly guilty of hypocrisy if you don't support the twins right to make a mix CD. Unreasoned Bushy-hate should be no substitute for doing the "right thing". (That is, if you consider making a mix CD the right thing.)

For all you that feel making a mix CD is piracy, by all means, proceed to bash.

In other news:

• The IRS is investigating this lawyer and auditing his returns all the way back to 1973. Apparently, he didn't claim income for his paper route.
• The Florida State Bar association has been directed to open up disbarrment procedures.
• The Justice Department has opened an investigation stemming from a 1973 incident where he let a customer, an 83 year old widow on a cat food diet, on his aforementioned paper route, not pay her paper bill.
• The U.S. Army is charging him as a deserter for not reporting as a draftee in 1973 when he was 11 years old.
• The McCarthy Committee on UnAmerican Activities was recalled to investigate the paper route incidents as a possible indicator of Commie leanings.
• The Audubon Society has been ordered to investigate the lawyer because he keeps a parakeet in a cage.

The Bush Administration has stated that they know of no connection between these and the lawyer's actions regarding the twins.

Re:sure you laugh

[Khaed]

psst, the Bush twins are like, 26. That's only "teenage" on a porn site.

Re:Excellent

[elrous0]

Exactly. The difference between the Bush twins and any old white trash chicks is that the Bush twins are on the stripper poll BY CHOICE.

Maybe if some more white trash chicks would spend some of those dollar bills on Texas oil investments instead of wasting it all on baby formula, they would get ahead too!

Re:Excellent

[BosstonesOwn]

Visual Basic KILLED MY MOTHER ! You insensitive clod !

Re:The really funny thing...

[ajenteks]

What would you give the most powerful man in the world?

Me, personally? A piece of my mind :p

Re:Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, a true open-minded unbiased perspective of the far left.

Re:Bush twins

[UnknowingFool]

True, it just happens this was reported on the Bush twins. It would be no different if it was John Kerry's or Al Gore's children. But then again, John Kerry doesn't listen to any music until he's taken a straw poll first to figure which song he should listen to. And since Al Gore invented music, he might be able to show prior art to anything the RIAA sued him for. I kid! I kid!

Stripper Poll

[Your Pal Dave]

the Bush twins are on the stripper poll BY CHOICE.

Now there's a poll with a Cowboy Neil option which scares me!

Re:The really funny thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

A trip to the Emerald City to see the wizard?

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[martin-boundary]

Well, with the prez's executive powers, it's easy to know who wins in this case. Dubbya to RIAA: "Oops, pardon me!"

Re:Hold on.

[Burning Plastic]

Hopefully it also eschews going up against a Sicilian when death is on the line...