I would view a lawsuit against me for downloading anything as a violation of my privacy (I don’t give a shit about the legal meaning of privacy btw)

And find out EVERY SINGLE NAME I COULD that was against me.
Starting with their lawyers then working my way up…

I’d start finding out all the information I could about them.

Then I’d post EVERYTHING I FOUND IN THE PUBLIC MEDIUM. With the simple message “These ass holes SUE CHILDREN AND GRANDMA’S”

Post their first and last names, home addresses license plates cars whatever I could dig up.

With a simple message:They live HERE. Bored with nothing to do on Hallowen? GO FUCK WITH THESE PEOPLE. Here’s their home addresses here’s what car they drive… Make em suffer…

Have a fun Halloween and Mischief Night, Assholes.

What “Observers”, exactly?
RIAA scumbag-sympathizers?

Don’t trust ANY article or story which relies on obfuscations such as “scientists say” or “observers believe” or similar. Wikipedia describes that as “weasel words”, and — rightly — views it as indicative of, at the very least, sloppy reporting.

Anyway, I thought the IRAA owned the DOJ?

Exactly!!! Each time that any person buys a RIAA album is supporting this criminal organization…

The perfect boycott is don’t buy any RIAA music anymore.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org

Example usage: “Wow, Sony came up with fool-proof DRM scheme they want the entire universe to license!” — “Oh, that’s going to be an RIAA lawsuit campaign!”

FilthyRichmond.com

Jiffers
http://www.privacy-center.ru.tc

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080926-ip-bill-passes-senate-no-civil-enforcement-power-for-doj.html

of course in the first instance the US legal system should never have been open to such abuse

the retaliation of the legal industry against the RIAA (and similarily the MPAA) will be swift and severe for the gross abuse of trust placed in these seemingly august institutions

MAFIAA you lost all your brownie points with the judicial industry by giving them a grand showing up. you misled the boys and girls and made fools of the law. big big big mistake

karma has come home to roost

http://www.h33t.com where filesharing is about leading from the front

I now commend this chaos virus;

whenever wherever and however the combination of the letters RIAA are spoken, written, or given voice in the mind by thought, so then shall the power, influence and capabilities of the organization known as the RIAA, perceptibly weaken, falter and fail.

A good week for Pirates! just hope more like this starts happening in the UK.

4000x loss = $222,000 (original figure)
100x loss = $5,550 (Judge’s figure)
10x loss = $550 (NORMAL damages multiplier)

So not only is the original verdict WAY out of the ordinary, but even the judge’s example damages multiplier is excessive.

BUT, if you buy 24 tracks on iTunes and it’ll cost you $20-$25, so the MAXIMUM the RIAA should get (if anything) would be something like $250.

I myself advocate filesharing and think we need to change or eliminate copyright in order to adapt to p2p rather than fight it.

We file-sharers have seen some significant victories in the past few days. Let’s not give up until we win. Keep sending letters to your representatives. Keep downloading and seeding torrents. And if you happen to be a content creator, why not bypass copyright problems all together and release your work open source.

It’s about time America woke up.

There are a few problems with that

1.) They still need court cases to get names, as without a court order they can’t get names for IP addresses.

2.) Without a monetary threat, they can’t get anything from the accused, unless they take it to court. They can’t force individuals to do anything without power behind the threat, they can threaten to take something to court, however, which is what they do now.

3.) The media won’t bother reporting lists of names or constant stories.

4.) Lets pretend they could just get lists of names and have them reported, who the hell is going to care about such a list?

I don’t know what is causing this, but I still think that it should be the common people who should be the agents of change in this. Ultimately, the battle must be fought, not in the courts, but in Congress, in order to change laws. Still, a positive development regardless.

Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/

Which translates to an unbelievable $3,600,000 for 24 songs!! Same songs you could can pick up from most online music retailers for less than $25.

America has some crazy laws and lawmakers, not to mention corrupt ones who are only too happy to accept big content money and favors.

*These* are the people who give America/Americans a bad name.

Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se

Sorry for the long reply time =)

I understand that the RIAA has no power in Australia (and thank goodness too), but the point I was trying to make was that the fines should be ALOT smaller. I mean, (in the Capitol v Thomas case) $222,000 for 24 songs? You have GOT to be kidding me!

And I couldn’t have given a better example of them myself. =) Nice ;)

Thanks TF for a great article.

As a quick example, how much clout does sayyyy… the Italian Mafia have in…sayyyy… Russia? Or the Russian Mafia in Italy?
Answer: Not half as much as they have in their home countries.

Its a pretty fair comparison too, the RIAA are after all nothing more than gangsters running a protection racket.

http://www.eZee.se

The Australian Copyright police have just admitted that they never have and never will sue anyone for downloading/uploading copyright files in Australia.

One guy got done a few months ago for CAMMING and uploading, but I guess that’s fair. he was just slapped with a $1,000 fine and 18 months good behaviour or something.

Shouldn’t the American fines/punishments be something more like that one?

One possibility is that they ask for the ‘accused’ to purchase the songs/movies/whatevers at the regular retail price, and name and shame them all over the news.

I reckon this would be 1000 times more effective and time saving then the BS that’s going on now.

Nice coincidence and good article.

Cheers!