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.

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:

[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!

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:Hold on.

[enjerth]

Personal ownership is a hallmark of conservative capitalism. And I don't believe I am entitled to anything that I did not work for.

Being poor has nothing to do with that, unless you think that I should be eager to grab for what another person has labored for. Which, having not the attitude of a thief, I do not want to take. I am poor, not desperate.

Any part of that you don't understand?

free money

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the reason liberals offer money to the poor is that those at the top are more vulnerable than they think. Welfare is for society, not the poor. We did have this little thing called the great depression that happened before we had welfare. Every time someone loses a job, they no longer contribute to the economy. A little help up from the government helps the economy from spiraling down -- money, no matter where it comes from, gets spent. . .and that my dear conservative friend, keeps other people working. Yes, some people abuse the system, but that is far outweighed by not letting hardworking people on hard times fall thru the cracks. Why is that so hard for you people to understand? Not that you or anyone will read this comment, by an anonymous coward, buried in a dead end thread -- but what the hell.

Re:

[Straif]

Just to clear things up, conservatives have no problem giving money to the poor; in fact every study I've seen on the subject put conservative giving in both time and money well above liberal giving. Conservatives just don't appreciate the government taking their money and throwing more and more of it into historically poorly run welfare systems (and I'm not calling for the abolishment of all social welfare programs, just asking they be better run).

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility and that

Re:

[TapeCutter]

I call BS on the French bashing, people regardless of their nationality don't suddenly abandon their grandma because the taxpayer is footing the bill for the doctor. Also how do you explain the fact that plenty of frail conservatives die when a severe heatwave hits the US [wikipedia.org], or are you so perverted by your hatred for anything "non-conservative" that you think all those US deaths were also caused by liberals on holiday?

As someone who lives in a country with universal health care that for 30+yrs has been pro

Re:Hold on.

[Elemenope]

Yeah, it's funny how that works. It's almost as if people can't process anything like: "while I don't agree with their competitors, I believe that person/company/ideology/etc. is behaving evilly." Exactly when did criticizing one group automatically mean you were working for the other side?

Conservatives have a tendency toward ethical blindness when it comes to the pracitcal human consequences of certain ideological fixed-points, like for example their belief in the awesome awesomeness of free markets as applied to everything under the sun. Many conservatives have the self-awareness to admit this is a weakness of their ideology, and some even attempt to address it. Damn heretics, I guess.

Liberals, if you want me to criticize those that I often criticize on a daily basis, have an insufficent appreciation for personal self-possession and responsibility, and tend to believe that underwriting centralized, highly inefficient bureaucracies is somehow a good way of providing services in the public interest. See? I can criticize yet another group I don't belong to. I am versatile.

Re:Hold on.

[Boronx]

The liberal-conservative labeling in the USA really sucks and has been harmful to our political debate. Typically they're taken for opposing ideologies, and usually used to mean "someone who holds views I think are stupid".

Some ideas are liberal, some are conservative, some are both, some are neither. Any one person usually holds to ideas and rejects ideas of both stripes.

Invading Iraq, for example, is not a liberal idea: liberalism disavows a nation's right to make aggressive war.

It isn't a conservative idea: conservatism eschews getting unnecessarily embroiled in costly occupations, especially in Asia.

I am a liberal. I am a conservative. I am an American, a citizen of a country founded on two incredible ideas. One is liberal, that the government is subordinate to the rights of people. The other is conservative, that the nation should be ruled by law not easily swayed by the mob or the powerful.

Dividing the country into liberals and conservatives weakens and diminishes us.

Re:Excellent

[rajafarian]

The Republican Conservative defense for all the shit they do: Democrats do it, too.

f u

I hope it takes less than my lifetime to clean up after this administration.

Re:Excellent

[mrseth]

I asked for two, not one.

Ok here are a few from the top of my head:

• Newt Gingrich and his wives
• Gingrich signed a book deal with a $4.5 million advance while still Speaker; exactly what he used to stick it to Wright six years earlier.
• The Foley Page scandal
• Ted Haggard
• O'Reilly sex scandal
• Have some pedophiles [armchairsubversive.org]
• How about cheating? [americaheldhostile.com]

I didn't hear the original quote,did you? in context? (I have a vague recollection of having come across the quote and that it seemed to be more aimed at users of drugs that are illegal than at people who misuse legal drugs, but that is a vague recollection, but that could be an incorrect recollection.

Big fucking distinction...sheesh! Talk about a fig leaf of an excuse. The fact that he even rails on about "illegal" drugs goes to illustrate that he favors a nanny state. What happened to the "rugged individualist?" He and his kind are afraid of real freedom.

He wasn't calling on me to change my behavior). More importantly has he been outspoken about all illegal drug users going to jail since he was caught abusing drugs?

So even HE realized how hypocritical that would sound. Amazing.

Al Gore still claims that greenhouse gases are the greatest threat to humanity

Actually I think the Theocratic wing of the republican party is the greatest threat to humanity. Look what you folks have wrought upon the world. The ones responsible for this and their supporters should hang their heads in shame...if they had any. Or are they so blind they cannot even see this?

and that all Americans must make great sacrifices

I have not heard that. If you had a brain you'd realize that what Al Gore talks about is not being pig-headed with the Earth's resources. Is that such a fucking terrible idea? Is efficiency not a good thing? But I find that the most critical of Gore have never really bothered to see what he really thinks. They get their info from Mr. Megadittos and his ill informed, mendacious ilk.

to reduce them even after being shown to do more to generate greenhouse gases at ONE of his mansions each month than the average American does in a year (even going so far as to justify this behavior).

See how ill-informed you are? Al Gore pays extra costs per kilowatt hour because he uses green energy. He also runs two fully-staffed offices in his home. Just for giggles, care to guess how much Dick Cheney's electric bill is?

My point was in reply to a poster who said that conservatives say "Do as I say, not as I do." The fact of the matter is that I can name more liberal elites who express this attitude publicly than I can conservative elites.

Even if that is the case, most liberals I know, and I am one, think that consenting adults can do pretty much as they please. Liberals are not the ones moralizing. One more aside: I think liberals govern a fuck of a lot better than you right-tards. Liberals brought us the weekend, the powerlines to the red-state America, they did something about rivers in ohio that were catching on fire, and islands of heavy metals being poured into Lake Erie, they forced corporations to adopt safety standards (actually Nixon created the EPA. He is a liberal now?), and you know what else? Life is just better under Democratic administrations . This has been my experience overall. Furthermore, I have been around the world. I have been around the US. We could learn a lot from Europe, but folks like you cry socialism (but for some reason, you guys tend like the army and NFL, to very socialist-like organizations) and we learn nothing. Life is also better in liberal cities, I know this is subjective, but conservative places tend to be drab, cookie-cutter, conformist, christian communities devoid of cultur

Re:Excellent

[HardCase]

The first comment to the blog entry pretty much torpedoes the whole idea:


You might want to check out section 1008 of the Audio Home Recording Act :

No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.

Sounds to me like that's the "mix tape exception" to copyright law.

Re:Excellent

[Score Whore]

Yep. You are exactly right. Except you can't distribute your mix tape under that.

Re:Excellent

[gruntled]

An excellent point. Which is why the RIAA doesn't actually litigate against people for *making copies*, which is protected behavior. Unprotected behavior includes *distributing* those copies. In a general sense, in the United States at least, distributing five or fewer copies of a song is protected by such things as (ta-da!) the Audio Home Recording Act. Massive distribution -- the sort of thing you might be involved in if your P2P client were configured to, say, allow the entire universe of other users to grab a copy of the song stored on your hard drive -- exposes you to legal action. To repeat: to the best of my knowledge, every RIAA action has alleged illegal *distribution*, not illegal *copying.* So while this is amusing, it's not exactly exposing the RIAA as hypocrites, since the act of handing a single copied CD is clearly protected behavior...

Re:

[dgatwood]

Nope. Ripping DVDs is potentially a legal problem because you are circumventing a protection device (albeit one not much better than ROT13). Ripping a CD does not do this, and as such, is legally protected format shifting. There's some debate about ripping DVDs as well, but ripping CDs is open and shut not illegal. What can be illegal is what you do with it afterwards.

BTW, a computer CD burner is probably not protected under the AHRA, AFAIK. It is not a consumer audio recorder. It is a data drive th

Maybe...

[msauve]

"digital audio recording medium," as defined by the act, only refers to _audio_ CD-Rs. These are special recordable CDs made to work in audio CD recorders, which will not record onto standard data CD-Rs (audio CD-Rs will also work in standard computer CD-R drives).

These audio CD-Rs are a bit harder to find, and a bit more expensive than standard data CD-Rs, because you indirectly pay a tax on them to the recording industry (it's collected at the wholesale level).

So, the Bush twins _might_ not be subject to copyright prosecution. OTOH, they do have GW's genes, so they're likely too stupid to know all of that, and probably used data CD-Rs, opening themselves up to prosecution.

The Lawyer is an IDIOT

[ROMRIX]

There has to be an infringement to investigate first. Fortunately (for the Bushes) there was none.
Read section 1008 of the "AUDIO HOME RECORDING ACT" Here; (pdf file) [ipmall.info]

" No action may be brought under this title , or under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture , importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium , an analogue recording device, or an analogue recording medium, or based on the no

Re:

[Perseid]

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

Government moved fast

[danbert8]

Nothing to see here AND two of the three links are dead... Fastest I've ever seen the US government react.

Re:

[MysteriousPreacher]

Better tell the guys at Gitmo to reserve a room for him.

Re:Government moved fast

[Nato_Uno]

Links should be:

http://thescrivener.blogspot.com/2007/06/copyright -is-dead.html [blogspot.com]
http://thescrivener.blogspot.com/2007/06/copyright -is-dead-part-2.html [blogspot.com]

Re:Government moved fast

[Nato_Uno]

Hold on - I think slashdot is b0rking them...

http://the_scrivener.blogspot.com/2007/ 06/copyright-is-dead.html
http://the_scrivener.bl ogspot.com/2007/06/copyright-is-dead-part-2.html

Yep, it is.  There should be an underscore between 'the' and 'scrivener'.  slashdot seems to be filtering that out for some reason, so I'm posting as "code" - you'll have to cut'n'paste links.

Re:

[Joebert]

Your reply is getting borked too, had to remove some spaces from the urls for them to work.

Re:Government moved fast

[jamie]

Yeah. We wrote Slash to adhere to RFC 1035 [faqs.org]:

2.3.1. Preferred name syntax

...

<domain> ::= <subdomain> | " "
<subdomain> ::= <label> | <subdomain> "." <label>
<label> ::= <letter> [ [ <ldh-str> ] <let-dig> ]
<ldh-str> ::= <let-dig-hyp> | <let-dig-hyp> <ldh-str>
<let-dig-hyp> ::= <let-dig> | "-"
<let-dig> ::= <letter> | <digit>
<letter> ::= any one of the 52 alphabetic characters A through Z in upper case and a through z in lower case
<digit> ::= any one of the ten digits 0 through 9

However, pretty much everyone allows underscores in machine names now, so I'm patching Slash to allow it.

Re:

[Gription]

Links are still dead...

Re:

[aardvarkjoe]

From the article:

Let's assume twelve songs, copied from twelve different CDs.

Let's not. How about let's assume twelve songs, legally downloaded from an online music store and burned to a CD. Total damages: $0.

What a stupid article.

I'm all for it

[drinkypoo]

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.'"

After that, let's go for what's-his-sellout-bitch-ass from Metallica who admitted in an interview in the 90s making a mix take for a friend in the 80s. After the whole "napster bad" incident I lost what little respect I had for them after the black album, and would love to see them burn for their overall hypocrisy.

FIRE BAD!

Re:

[Kokuyo]

Does that mean you don't like them for the Black Album or for everything they produced afterwards?

While I seriously like their music I feel about the same amount of sympathy towards them as you do.

Oldie but goodie

[frogstar_robot]

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

Re:I'm all for it

[turgid]

After that, let's go for what's-his-sellout-bitch-ass from Metallica who admitted in an interview in the 90s making a mix take for a friend in the 80s.

Now, I think Lars is a monkey as much as the next man, and that his band is a sell-out Country and Western outfit, but to be fair to him, he has made amends for his previous stance on the issue. Mrs. Turgid dragged me along to see the Some Kind of Monster film, and Lars quite clearly is ashamed of and sorry for the Napster thing.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Now, I think Lars is a monkey as much as the next man, and that his band is a sell-out Country and Western outfit, but to be fair to him, he has made amends for his previous stance on the issue.

"Fair" would be to get into the eye of the media again, tell us who told them to say that shit, and retract it, since it's obvious hypocrisy.

"Fair" would be to determine their percentage contribution to the RIAA's FUD, and for them to pay that percentage of the awards won by the RIAA against people who should never

They control the Internet!

[PinkPanther]

WTF? Blog pulled already??

[Searching for tinfoil, a wire hanger and some crazy glue (or duct tape)]

this is WONDERFUL!

[phrostie]

now the politians can start to see this "Richards" for what they are

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:

[southpolesammy]

$1.8M in potential damages
$150k/song

That comes out to 12 songs. Sounds about right (mathematically speaking, that is.....).

Re:

[slackmaster2000]

This is a political statement. A sort of motivated joke.

Re:

[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.

Re:

[slashbob22]

No, that's 12 tracks at RIAA's going rate of $150,000. Methinks that RIAA has a decimal place on the left side of their collective IQ.

Re:

[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.

Where is TFA

[jeffmeden]

The two blog posts are missing in action, and the first linked story just mentions 'a cd was made for him to exercise to' making no claim that the songs were even copyrighted, or that if they were there was no permission to copy them. Also, when twins do something, who takes the blame for it? Do they have to split the $1.8M fine? So many unanswered questions...

Re:

[jd142]

Even if he is listening to Beethoven, the individual performance of the piece is copyrighted.

Re:

[Volante3192]

Just because the notes aren't copyrighted, that doesn't mean the specific performance is. I could make a recording of me playing the 5th and distribute it how I see fit. However, if I made an mp3 of the Boston Pops playing the same piece, that still falls under a copyright violation.

Funny but nothing new

[doombringerltx]

This is like a while back President Bush said he had the Beatles on his iPod, when there was no legal way to get them on there. Sure, It's funny, but thats this isn't gonna change anyone's minds and there is no way the RIAA is gonna after him. Policians and celebrities don't have to play by the same rules as you and I, whats new?

Re:Funny but nothing new

[mrscorpio]

No legal way other than buying the CD and ripping an mp3 for yourself, you mean? Because that falls under "fair use" which is still law for a little while longer, last I checked.

Re:

[johnny cashed]

I thought it would be legal to make mp3 copies of your purchased Beatles CD for the purpose of putting it on one's ipod. Am I wrong?

Re:

[OrangeTide]

If it were illegal to rip CDs for personal use then I guess iTunes and WMP would be DMCA violations, having aided you in your evil copyright violation schemes.

If the president does it, it isn't illegal.

[weston]

President Bush said he had the Beatles on his iPod, when there was no legal way to get them on there.

"Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html [landmarkcases.org]

Missing data?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

The blog postings seem to be missing, and I can't figure out how he reached a number as low as $1.8 million. If we assume an average of 5 minutes per song, and an 80 minute CDR, that comes to 16 tracks, which at $150,000/track comes to $2.4 million.

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?

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[CantStopDancing]

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

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Joebert]

Thankyou for ruining Jello wrestling for me.

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Anonymous Cowpat]

Bush - he's gone in 2 years anyway, and if he spends those 2 years annihilating the RIAA, that's a win for us.

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you read history? Jar-Jar Binks' gonna call for emergency executive powers. He's not going down until Death Star #2.

Re:RIAA vs Bush

[Lurker2288]

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

Re:

[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!"

Regular CD or MP3 CD?

[ArcadeNut]

I didn't RTFA, but what if it wasn't a regular CD? What if it was an MP3 CD? Imagine what the "Damages" would be then! If they could cram 1500 songs on a CD, it would be $225,000,000.00 in damages! Seems fair to me....

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! :-)

Is this the case?

[91degrees]

I'm sure the RIAA doesn't have any major problems with Mix-tapes, and have usually tolerated peopel giving these away. It's indiscriminate sharing of large numbers of files on P2P networks they sue over and the Bush Twins haven't been doing that.

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:

[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?

2 words....

[jellomizer]

Presidential Pardon

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:

[Khaed]

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

Yeah...

[Nom du Keyboard]

Yeah, like that's going to ever happen.

Maybe they'll be let off, like that record exec's son, with a stern talking to by their daddy. Any other person sued by the RIAA that wants to take that option too?

Home Audio Recording Act?

[WaxParadigm]

It's a non-issue if they used a "Digital Audio Recording Device" [wikipedia.org] and the CD-R was a "Digital Audio Recording Medium." I have such a device and use the slightly-more-expensive "music" CD-Rs when I make CDs for friends/family/myself (i.e. to have copy in car). I am exempt from infringement actions (I can't be prosecuted/sued for copyright infringement) for such activities. If they, like me, acted within the Home Audio Recording Act there is no story here...just FUD.

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.

Found in Yahoo's cache.

[Torodung]

Here's the original, for as long as it stays up.

Yahoo's cache of retracted blog entry. [216.109.125.130]

Mccarthyism

[TinBromide]

mccarthyism and the early salem witch trials ended when high profile people (read: close to the heart of those doing the prosecutions) were targeted as communists or witches. Hit the president's daughter and senators feel that they might be next and enact laws to save us all.

This would be a good thing!!!

[one2meny]

I wish the RIAA would go forward and try to litigate the President's daughters. All of a sudden the President's attention would be very quickly and precisely to act against any current and future RIAA litigation by basically saying, you're a bullying group with no legal authority don't do this type of thing again or be disbanded. If only...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[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.

Re:Bush twins

[Bigby]

It's not about hated their dad. It is about whether the RIAA is selectively enforcing their copyrights; and the Bush twins are high profile collateral damage. I don't know about copyrights, but if you know someone is infringing on your trademark and you do nothing about it, you lose that trademark. The lawyer is letting them know about an infringement of copyright.

Re:

[sricetx]

Copyright and trademark are entirely different things. IANAL but I'm quite certain that at least in the USA you cannot lose copyright by not prosecuting cases of infringement. Trademark on the other hand, can be lost if it isn't "protected".

Re:Bush twins

[Elemenope]

Copyrights don't work the same as trademarks in that they do not require an active defense to continue operating. But from a moral/political point of view, it is wrong/unwise for the **IA to be selective in their pursuits of 'violators' of their clients' copyrighted works, and doubly so in the public eye (as public officials are "role models", and also a generally privileged class).

Re:Bush twins

[bill_mcgonigle]

Oh, great! Go after kids because you hate their Dad. Sad.

It has nothing to do with their Dad - it has to do with their visibility, due to their dad's station in life. If this were 10 years ago, he'd make the case against Chelsea Clinton.

It's about:

• media attention
• pointing out the absurd damages the RIAA claims
• pointing out that they don't go after those who are likely to be able to defend themselves

This guy's on our side.

I'm curious - if the RIAA decides not to prosecute, does this somehow weaken their future cases or set them up for government sanction? (I know, copyrights aren't trademarks).

Re:

[Elemenope]

I'm curious - if the RIAA decides not to prosecute, does this somehow weaken their future cases or set them up for government sanction? (I know, copyrights aren't trademarks).

Maybe not under the law, but certainly in the public eye. The continued behavior of the **IAs requires legislative support for their preferred notion of how copyrights ought to work; if people get actively pissed off enough (and seeing el presidente and spawn get away with something that they can't is sure to do just that) the legi

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!

Re:

[Esion Modnar]

It's about public humiliation of the RIAA. Imagine a bully, who prefers picking on the weak, is confronted by a real bruiser who starts blowing his nose on the bully's shirt. The bully now has the unfortunate choice of either pretending ignorance, or responding with violence which will end up with him on the ground, bleeding from both ends. Either option is humiliating for the bully.

It shows to everyone what the bully truly is about: cowardice. All the bully can do is glare at the tormenter.

In the case of

Re:

[Fujisawa Sensei]

So you're saying that 2 girls who share music and are reported to the RIAA should not be because of their dad?

They've been caught and reported, why shouldn't they be victimized like the rest of us?

Re:

[pecosdave]

Think deeper!

Not hate Bush, hate RIAA.
It's like handing someone a pizza and telling them to deliver it to someone living in a van in the middle of an auto salvage yard, filled with dobermans and other junkyard dogs.

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:The songs may not be from RIAA artists NOT!!!!!

[Nom du Keyboard]

The attention-whore Florida attorney seems to have made the assumption that the songs were from RIAA labels,

Keep in mind that the money-whoring, RIAA affiliated, Sound Exchange collects royalties on all songs broadcast by all artists -- even the ones who don't want royalties collected, and don't want to pay the high fees demanded by Sound Exchange just to get their money back. For a small artist it costs more than you'd recover, but then SE just keeps the money for itself. Talk about ripping off artists!!

Jack Thompson?

[ObiWonKanblomi]

The attention-whore Florida attorney...

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

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:

[cayenne8]

"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."

Yeah....I mean, while I'm all in favor of making the powers that be face up to what everyone else had to...I've never considered the modern version (CD) of the classic 'mixed tape' to be a criminal offense.

Surely this lawyer has some better ammo than this??

Re:

[mabinogi]

That is not even close to true.

You are getting confused with Trademark law, and even there it's not true.
With trademarks the issue is that if a mark has been diluted enough that it is in use as a common word then you can't enforce it any more, so in order to prevent that from happening you need to actively defend it.

But copyright is yours till it expires, no matter what happens.

Re:Careful Now

[*weasel]

Making a mix CD isn't the problem.
The fact that they gifted it to their father is.
(They distributed music to their father that they almost certainly did not have the right to distribute)

Also, it's not a 'support' of anti-piracy laws, it's an apagogical argument:
"if you sue college kids for swapping songs, you should then also sue the daugther of the president for an absurd amount for this obviously harmless activity."

Re:Careful Now

[Hatta]

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.)

Hardly. It's entirely possible to be against a bad law, yet be for the even application of it. In this case fair application of the law makes it very clear just how bad a law it is.

Re:Careful Now

[colmore]

Indeed, the fastest way for a bad law to be repealed is for it to be fairly applied to politically powerful people.

Imagine if crooked pharmacists and the millions of middle class Americans who abuse pharmaceutical drugs were treated like other "enemies" in the war on drugs.

Re:

[Junior J. Junior III]

That's the point of this stunt -- by bringing the issue home to the Bush family, they'll start to look at things from the perspective of the consumer, rather than automatically siding with Big Business as they normally would. Unless *they're* hypocrites (which of course, they are, so I don't know that this will really accomplish anything), this should get them to start thinking that copyright reform is needed and that Fair Use provisions need to be protected and reinforced so that they cannot be taken away

Re:

[Weirsbaski]

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".

The stink isn't that the BUSHIES made a mix CD. The stink is the selective persecution. It's related to "why do college kids get sued for $thousands, while kids of industry insiders get off with a stern lecture?"

Maybe if presidents, congresscritters, judges were also in the line of fire, the la

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.

Re:Must be a slow news day...

[DM9290]

"There is a common practice in law these days called "selective prosecution"..."

You make it sound like this practice is considered legitimate by the Courts. In fact, if you can show evidence that you are being arbitrarily prosecuted and there isn't a legitimate justification, it is grounds in some courts, to have the entire proceedings Stayed as an 'abuse of process'. You must be harmed to bring a civil action. If you have no problem allowing others to infringe on your copyright, then there is reasonable grounds to believe it isn't really a harm. Under English Common law the Court has the power and responsibility to prevent any abuse of the judicial system. Treating individual offenders differently simply because they are a celebrity or politician or the President's daughter (etc) is such an abuse. In fact, not prosecuting the President's daughter may almost be seen as some kind of a bribe or attempt to improperly influence the Executive Branch.

A plaintiff with limited resources is justified in selectively prosecuting simply because they can't possibly go after everyone at once so have to choose their battles. This is not considered arbitrary, but it is a rational, and necessary evil. 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.

Now perhaps this selective prosecution takes place behind the scenes where no one is looking. (I think we all know it does). But the courts have no power over what happens outside the court room where there is no evidence. It falls upon witnesses to bring evidence forward.

In this case there is evidence. The president himself has publically stated his daughter is guilty of making and distributing pirate music CD. I think that is actually a criminal offense now, is it not?

Re:

[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]?

Re:

[jedidiah]

C'mon... at least Capone was competent.

He was probably more charasmatic too.

Re:

[russotto]

The retraction is wrong. The exemption under AHRA only applies if a SCMS-supporting device is used. I don't think those can make mix CDs.