p2pnet - rss feed: RIAA ’sue ‘em all’ conference
p2p news / p2pnet:- November 3 is the date ear-marked for the Chicago Northwestern University Law School one-day conference (and the first) for lawyers and other people involved in Big Music cartel sue ‘em all marketing campaign.
“An entire conference devoted to discussing what the hell the RIAA is doing with its indiscriminate litigation?” - says boing boing in a post Cory Doctorow picked up from Recording Industry vs The People.
“Wow. I thought the RIAA was in the business of making records, but it turns out that the music is a loss-leader to sell its its real product: lawuits.”
In September, 2003, the Recording Association of America filed the first wave of lawsuits against individual p2p file sharers, says the registration site, going on:
“Two years and 14,000 lawsuits later, both P2P file-sharing and file-sharing litigation continue unabated, and members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are now suing individual and Internet users as well. It’s time to step back and consider where this litigation has been, where it’s going, and whether there is a better way.
“This one-day conference will cover these salient legal issues. This First Annual P2P Litigation Summit brings together public and private defense attorneys, clients, investigators, advocates and academics for their views on the latest developments in peer-to-peer litigation through panel discussions and presentations.”
One of the speakers is Michigan lawyer John Hermann who’s looking after several RIAA victims, including Candy Chan who’s daughter has just been named as the RIAA’s newest victim.
Another is Ray Beckerman who’s representing Patricia Santangelo, the New York mother who was the first to stand up to the cartel.
Beckerman will be writing a report for p2pnet, and we’ll also be hearing from John Hermann and the University of Ottawa’s Alex Cameron.
Others taking part in the conference include David Andora, the defendant in Virgin Records International, et al v David Andora and BayTSP boss Mark Ishikawa.
Conspicuous by their absence are RIAA (Recording Association of America) spinsters Cary Sherman and Mitch ‘The Don’ Bainwol.
The conference will feature four panels:
Panel I: Broadening the Landscape
Too-often, debates about file-sharing focus exclusively on the views and actions of US-based content providers and music/video fans. This panel will offer diverse perspectives that are sometimes forgotten. Panelists will explore the pros and cons of litigation against end-users as opposed to intermediaries, the role of Internet Service Providers in the file-sharing litigation, and the role of private investigators in identifying potential defendants and building legal cases.
Panel II: Escaping the Litigation Quagmire: Searching for Alternative Means to Reduce Infringement and LitigationTwo years and 14,000 lawsuits after the RIAA filed the first wave of cases against P2P file-sharing music fans, both file-sharing and file-sharing litigation continue unabated. Panelists will discuss alternative approaches, from voluntary collective licensing to legislative intervention, and compare U.S. approaches to those of neighboring jurisdictions, such as Canada and the European Union.
Panel III: Litigation Update
Panelists will discuss recent decisions and events on the litigation landscape. Which legal strategies are working in the courts? Which are not? Audience members are strongly encouraged to share their experiences.
Panel IV: Settlement v. Litigation
Panelists will discuss settlement strategies, settlement agreements and the viability of choosing to litigate instead. What is the formula for current settlement demands? What circumstances give rise to flexibility? Is litigation worthwhile in light of litigation developments? What is the future for mass settlement support centers? What are some of the key issues within existing settlement agreements? Audience members will be strongly encouraged to share their experiences.
Topics will include:
How do the RIAA and MPAA go about identifying plaintiffs?
What are the most effective legal strategies and tactics?
Is it better to settle immediately, or fight it out in the courts?
What is the role of ISPs in this quagmire?
Should Congress step in and, if so, what legislation is needed?
Audience members will be strongly encouraged to share their experiences.
Most read
Meanwhile, and not at all incidentally, yesterday, just about 24 hours ago we posted Big Music wants Britanny Chan which describes how EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal to use their RIAA to sue a 14-year-old Michigan girl
At7:15 am Pacific today, in the fastest rise for any p2pnet story since we started counting at the beginning of the year, at 39,567 and rising like a rocket, it was it was the second most read item .
Significantly, the Number One spot is still held by the ‘We’re Not Taking Any More’ club post ( 52,695) with RIAA victim talks to p2pnet at Number Three with 26,403.
And that’s only p2pnet.
The people are paying attention.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
October 6th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
will you be going ?
October 6th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Unfortunately not.
As far as I know, p2pnet is the only on- or offline publication to have been covering Big Music’s depredations and its victimization of file sharers in any kind of depth or detail since the beginning. However, p2pnet isn’t entrepreneurial. I work on it full-time, 24/7, but the ad revenue doesn’t cover expenses (which include keeping me and my family alive ; ), let alone providing money for trips.
I live in BC, Canada, and as much as I’d like to report on the conference, I won’t be able to make it.
But that’s OK. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of material from the people who WILL be there.
Cheers!
October 6th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
“Conspicuous by their absence are RIAA (Recording Association of America) spinsters Cary Sherman and Mitch ‘The Don’ Bainwol.”
As the most hated and corrupt organization, I wouldn’t blame Cary Sherman or Mitch Bainwol for not coming out in public.
October 6th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Besides, they’re working on their alibi when that bomb inadvertantly goes off in Chicago, removing all of their nightmares in one fell swoop.
October 6th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
I would question the legality of the information gathering. Were there warrents presented to the ISPs to get information from them, were they threatened with lawsuits if they provide the information, or was the information stolen? I always thought it took a warrent to get into the files of the ISP users. And if there wasn’t a warrent, can that information be used as evidence?
If the information was stolen or taken with user permission, someone must be guilty for it, be it the private investigator, or the ones that hired the private investigator to get the information.
October 7th, 2005 at 11:11 am
I’m surpirsed Mark Ishiakawa is going to attend. I hope he doesn’t wear a good suit that’s likely to get ruined from being splattered with rotten fruit.
October 7th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
I would say that using automated traffic monitoring via supernodes/ultra peers on p2p networks such as fasttrack/gnutella is legally dubious also.
Personally, i believe the networks (or atleast the protocol developers) should implement some legal protection against data retention. Custom software used by the RIAA/MPAA take advantage of the supernode/ultra peer features of fasttrack/gnutella to monitor traffic/searches and identify uploaders by fequency of hits/bandwidth. If the networks declared data retention illegal (you could probably use the data protection act), then companies like big champane and others that work for the music cartels would be breaking the law. This would mean any evidence used to procecute users would be amissible in a court of law because they broke the law to obtain it.