Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Canadian copyright infringement suit against RIAA record labels

It will be interesting to see how the Big 4 record labels defend themselves from the Canadian copyright infringement class action which has been launched against them.



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Monday, December 07, 2009

Court enters judgment in SONY v Tenenbaum

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court has entered judgment.

In addition to the monetary award fixed by the jury, the Court also granted some, but not all, of the injunctive relief requested by the RIAA.

Additionally, the Court set briefing schedules for post-judgment motions, and for motions for fees and sanctions.

The Court also issued a ruling explaining its reasoning for dismissing the fair use defense, which (a) indicated that there might be many scenarios under which fair use would be a defense to an RIAA vs. End User p2p file sharing case, and (b) criticized -- at length -- the defendant's lawyer's behavior.

Decision granting in part, denying in part, plaintiffs' motion for permanent injunction
Judgment
Order Scheduling Post-Judgment Motions
Order Scheduling Attorneys Fees and Sanctions Motions
Decision explaining ruling striking fair use defense

[Ed. note. Since the defendant "admitted liability" there really was no legal issue for the Court to decide other than (a) the scope of injunctive relief, (b) the excessiveness of the statutory damages award, and (c) the constitutionality of the statutory damages award. As the Court's ruling indicates, issues (b) and (c) remain open and are expected to be the subject of further briefing. Additionally, the issues of attorneys fees and sanctions are likewise open, and expected to be the subject of further briefing. -R.B.]

Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net
p2pnet.net
LA Times
Heise Online (German)
Slashdot







Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Thursday, December 03, 2009

South by Southwest announces first group of music panels: I will be one of the speakers #sxsw

The South by Southwest festival for 2010 has announced its first group of music panels, and my panel -- "Recording Industry vs. The People" -- was among those selected:

"Freshly Picked Music Panels"

Should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to it.

Should be a good opportunity to learn more about what the music industry will look like without record companies whose only business plan is to bring extortionate lawsuits against defenseless people.



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Arista v Does 1-16 argued on November 20th

In Arista v. Does 1-16, the appeal from the lower court's rulings was argued in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on Friday, November 20th.

Decision was reserved.

Briefs:

Brief of Appellant
Appellees' Brief
Appellant's Reply Brief

[Ed. note. I was in attendance. Unfortunately, the argument did not appear to go well, and did not deal with any of the procedural unfairness issues in the RIAA's inappropriate use of ex parte procedures where they could easily provide prior notice through the ISP. See, ABA Judges' Journal Article: "Large Recording Companies vs. The Defenseless : Some Common Sense Solutions to the Challenges of the RIAA Litigations". I was very disappointed that so many important issues were not aired in the argument. - R.B.]


Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Monday, November 16, 2009

Attorneys fee appeal in Lava v Amurao rejected by "summary order"

In Lava Records v. Amurao, the appeal by Rolando Amurao from a lower court order denying his attorneys fee motion, the Second Circuit has affirmed the order of the lower court by a "summary order" (an order having no precedential effect).

The Court relied in part upon

Amurao’s pre-suit written admission to the plaintiffs that “[w]e downloaded the songs [in question] through a program called Lime Wire,” Amurao’s subsequent less-than-candid responses to plaintiffs’ discovery requests, and the plaintiffs’ efforts to terminate this case quickly once it became clear through discovery that another member of Amurao’s household, rather than Amurao himself, had, in fact, downloaded the copyrighted materials.
November 16, 2009, Summary Order, USCtApp 2nd Cir

Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Friday, November 13, 2009

Correction: Part of Tanya Andersen's class action dismissed by District Court judge

In Andersen v. Atlantic Recording, Tanya Andersen's abuse-of-process class action, the Court granted the RIAA's motion for partial summary judgment dismissing so much of Ms. Andersen's claims as arise from initiation of an action against her.

The motion did not involve so much of Ms. Andersen's claims as arise from the RIAA's continuation of the action against her. That aspect of her case remains pending.

The basis for the Court's decision was the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.

November 12, 2009, opinion and order granting RIAA's motion for summary judgment dismissing complaint

Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Friday, October 30, 2009

Brooklyn Law School backs down; will not voluntarily investigate & "name names"

Brooklyn Law School has modified the position it took the other day, in which it had indicated it was going to actively investigate who may have been downloading MPAA movies or shows, and turn over the names for "enforcement" purposes. It sent out the following email a day later:

From: Announcements On Behalf Of Phil Allred
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:08 PM
To: All Users
Subject: [BLS] Update on illegal downloads e-mail notice

Yesterday, I sent out an e-mail regarding the recent spate of abuse notices we have received from our Internet service provider. Under our contract, users are prohibited from downloading copyrighted works. If we knowingly allow such activity to continue without taking action, we risk losing access to the Internet. When we can ascertain the people who are responsible for alleged illegal downloads, we will notify them to cease such activity. We will comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512 ). Outside of the legal process, we are not obligated to turn over the names of the alleged infringers to copyright holders and will not do so.

Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net

Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Case against SUNY Albany students to be argued in 2d Circuit Fri Nov 20th

In Arista v. Does 1-16, the appeal from the lower court's rulings has been set down for argument in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on Friday, November 20th, on the 2:00 P.M. calendar (pdf).

The courthouse is located at 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York, and its proceedings are open to the public.

Briefs:

Brief of Appellant
Appellees' Brief
Appellant's Reply Brief



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Brooklyn Law School investigating its students for MPAA

We have been advised that Brooklyn Law School students have received the following email from Brooklyn Law School:

From: Phil Allred
Date: October 28, 2009 11:49:41 AM EDT
To: All Users
Subject: [BLS] Illegal downloading

This semester we have received several warnings from our Internet service provider that copyrighted movies and TV shows are being downloaded illegally via our wireless network. The Information Technology office is now ascertaining who is doing this. Once we have names of the individuals involved, we intend to give them to the copyright holders for enforcement purposes.

We remind everyone that copyright abuse is illegal and that use of the Internet while at Brooklyn Law School must be in accordance with our published Terms of Service document located at http://www.brooklaw.edu/terms.

Phil Allred
CIO
Brooklyn Law School


Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Monday, October 26, 2009

Both sides file objections to Magistrate Judge report in UMG v Lindor

In UMG Recordings v. Lindor, both sides today filed objections to the Magistrate Judge's October 9, 2009, report and recommendation, which recommended that plaintiffs' motion to dismiss without prejudice be granted without conditions, and that plaintiffs' motion for discovery sanctions be denied.

Plaintiffs' objections
Defendant's objections

Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

RIAA Case Watch List

For those of you who have or want to open PACER accounts, and want to help out in the fight against the RIAA's litigation campaign, here is a watch list of cases which I'd appreciate your monitoring whenever you can.

This is not an all-inclusive list of cases we are watching, but just a select list of cases that need extra watching for various reasons.

If anything happens in one of these cases, please email me the *pdf's. This will be a recurring post, in which cases will be added to and subtracted from the list, so bookmark the permalink near the bottom of this post.

The PACER login page is here. To sign up for PACER go here.

Please look only for documents subsequent to August 9, 2009.

Instructions: Log in. Go to district court, then input case number. Request "docket report". If there is new activity, download *pdf file and email to me. (If you're not sure if it's important enough, email me and ask.) Thanks. -R.B.
RIAA Case Watchlist


District, Case no., Case name

Minnesota: 06-1497 Capitol Records v. Thomas
Oregon: 07-934 Andersen v. Atlantic Recording



Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net



Keywords: digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Complaint sought to be amended in Fairey v AP, false statements made by plaintiff

In Fairey v. Associated Press, the fair use case involving a painting of Pres. Obama from a photograph, the plaintiff has sought to amend his complaint, on the ground that he had made incorrect statements about the photograph on which his painting had been based.

Additionally, his motion states that he had initially attempted to cover up his mistake, rather than bring the mistake to the attention of his attorneys.

Motion to amend complaint
Proposed amended complaint



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Friday, October 09, 2009

Magistrate denies RIAA motion for discovery sanctions in UMG v Lindor

Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy has recommended that the RIAA's motion for discovery sanctions against the defendant and her counsel in UMG Recordings v. Lindor be denied, and that the RIAA's motion for the action to be voluntarily dismissed "without prejudice" be granted.

The Judge held that "Plaintiffs’ claims concerning defendant’s conduct are largely overstated."

Decision of Magistrate Judge denying plaintiffs' motion for discovery sanctions, granting plaintiffs' motion for voluntary dismissal without prejudice



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player