Recording Industry vs The People: List of Record Labels on the RIAA's Frequent Plaintiff List

Saturday, July 21, 2007

List of Record Labels on the RIAA's Frequent Plaintiff List

Here is a list of the "frequent plaintiffs" in the RIAA cases:

Arista
Atlantic
BMG
Capitol
Elektra
Fonovisa
Interscope
Lava
Loud
Maverick
Motown
Priority
SONY
UMG
Virgin
Warner

Commentary & discussion:

Slyck
p2pnet
Idolator

Keywords: digital copyright online 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

11 comments:

AMD FanBoi said...: The Dirty Dozen, plus four.; July 21, 2007 at 8:19:00 PM EDT
James said...: No EMI?

That isn't suprising seeing their DRM free stance now. Perhaps they are trying to capitalize while the other labels waste money and garner bad reputation. Just seems odd they would not market themselves as 'The good label'; July 22, 2007 at 7:44:00 AM EDT
raybeckerman said...: james, are you sure some of those labels aren't subsidiaries of EMI?; July 22, 2007 at 11:13:00 AM EDT
Interested Observer said...: Both Capital and Virgin are part of EMI; July 22, 2007 at 12:30:00 PM EDT
Alter_Fritz said...: James, EMI of course.

/rant
"They" aren't any better then the other guys.
That they sell now DRM free stuff doesn't make them any better.
For one, they charge more for something that should be the norm; DRM free music instead of the DRM crippled stuff. For second they do not offer for that extra money the same high lossless quality you could get if you would buy the old CDDA soundsources.

It looks as if those executives in the Labels are ~5-6 years behind the market reality with their decisions.
They refused to selling .mp3 files while this datareducing technology was hip and was used widely in the early years of p2p, napster and co.
Now after all those years in which the real live of music distribution evolved further they try to hop onto the fast running train with a product that is soooo '99.
Today the (former) customers have better broadband, faster lines; The times where "mp3" was a necessarity to be even able to dream about getting music via your computer (15 minutes wait time for 3 minutes that might turn out to be a "start to be frustrated about organised music and draw your attention away from their product in general"-fake file) are long gone for many industrialised parts of the world.
In really industrialised countrys (read for once NOT the USA but sweden or japan for example where 100 mbits symetric connections to ordinary households are considered "the norm") have musicloving consumers switched from lossy mp3 to lossless digital musicencoding like FLAC.

So EMI's move to offer now, 7 years after the "market start", mp3 files is from a business perspective like trying to sell Ford T models as a must have car in todays america.
OK, if you have an original Ford T these days it might be worth quite a bit due to it's (natural) scarcity, but the (artificial) scarcity of Music embodied objects don't have the same values;
"mp3 files aren't rare".
Even the russians have realised that and they offer lossless quality to buy! that is money that the lables and even more the artists lose because they refuse to make deals with the russians!

And of course the labels are to dinosaur like that they don't set up their own "get our whole back catalouge in CD quality for a market oriented prize with the assurance that you will not be terrorised by our SS-Center if you buy from us"-shop.
Organised music simply deserves to die, they are like a obsolete species in the (digital) evolution.

/end rant; July 22, 2007 at 1:08:00 PM EDT
Jadeic said...: Here is the list again with the parent company alongside:

Arista [SonyBMG]
Atlantic [Warner]
BMG [SonyBMG]
Capitol [EMI]
Elektra [Warner]
Fonovisa [Independent American
Spanish Language Label]
Interscope [Universal]
Lava [Warner]
Loud [SonyBMG]
Maverick [Warner]
Motown [Universal]
Priority [EMI]
SONY [SonyBMG]
UMG [Universal]
Virgin [EMI]
Warner [Warner]

This puts a slightly different complexion on things.

I am also compiling what is a long term labour-of-love list of all tracks listed on the infamous Exhibit A in the hope that some detailed analysis will perhaps reveal a hidden RIAA agenda. Will post progress later.

Dave; July 22, 2007 at 1:36:00 PM EDT
jbrooks said...: Please note that Fonovisa is connected with UMG. http://new.umusic.com/News.aspx?NewsId=140

That must be how they end up as plaintiffs.; July 26, 2007 at 11:21:00 AM EDT
raybeckerman said...: I believe it is incorrect that Fonovisa is independent. I believe it is a subsidiary of the UMG/Universal thuggery group.; July 30, 2007 at 12:16:00 AM EDT
raybeckerman said...: duh..... jbrooks is correct, and my comment was redundant.... fonovisa is not even a seperate company, it is just a subdivision of universal.....; July 30, 2007 at 12:18:00 AM EDT
raybeckerman said...: thank you "interested observer"... i knew emi was in the house... thugs to the last...; July 30, 2007 at 12:19:00 AM EDT
Jadeic said...: Fonovisa is one of three labels that comprise the Univision Music Group which has almost half of the US Latin market. As such it is an independent label albeit Univision does have an exclusive distribution and licensing agreement with Universal Music: hence the link with this case.; July 30, 2007 at 6:48:00 AM EDT

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JUDICIAL QUOTATIONS

"[T]he Court is concerned about the lack of facts establishing that Defendant was using that IP address at that particular time. Indeed, the [complaint] does not explain what link, if any, there is between Defendant and the IP address. It is possible that Plaintiff sued Defendant because he is the subscriber to IP address .... As recognized by many courts, just because an IP address is registered to an individual does not mean that he or she is guilty of infringement when that IP address is used to commit infringing activity." -Hon. Barry Ted Moskowitz, Chief Judge, S.D. California. January 29, 2013, AF Holdings v. Rogers
"The complaints assert that the defendants – identified only by IP address – were the individuals who downloaded the subject “work” and participated in the BitTorrent swarm. However, the assumption that the person who pays for Internet access at a given location is the same individual who allegedly downloaded a single sexually explicit film is tenuous, and one that has grown more so over time." - Hon. Gary R. Brown, Magistrate Judge, E.D.N.Y. May 1, 2012, K-Beech v. Does 1-37
"The concern of this Court is that in these lawsuits, potentially meritorious legal and factual defenses are not being litigated, and instead, the federal judiciary is being used as a hammer by a small group of plaintiffs to pound settlements out of unrepresented defendants."
-Hon. S. James Otero, Dist. Judge, Central Dist. California, March 2, 2007, Elektra v. O'Brien, 2007 ILRWeb (P&F) 1555
"The University has adequately demonstrated that it is not able to identify the alleged infringers with a reasonable degree of technical certainty...[C]ompliance with the subpoena as to the IP addresses represented by these Defendants would expose innocent parties to intrusive discovery....[T]he Court declines to authorize discovery and quashes the subpoena as to Does # 8, 9, and 14" -Hon. Nancy Gertner, Dist. Judge, Dist. Massachusetts, November 24, 2008, London-Sire Records v. Does 1-4
"[C]ounsel representing the record companies have an ethical obligation to fully understand that they are fighting people without lawyers... that the formalities of this are basically bankrupting people, and it's terribly critical that you stop it...." -Hon. Nancy Gertner, Dist. Judge, Dist. Massachusetts, June 17, 2008, London-Sire v. Does 1-4
"Rule 11(b)(3) requires that a representation in a pleading have evidentiary support and one wonders if the Plaintiffs are intentionally flouting that requirement in order to make their discovery efforts more convenient or to avoid paying the proper filing fees. In my view, the Court would be well within its power to direct the Plaintiffs to show cause why they have not violated Rule 11(b) with their allegations respecting joinder. [I]t is difficult to ignore the kind of gamesmanship that is going on here.....These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme... to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined." -Hon. Margaret J. Kravchuk, Magistrate Judge, District of Maine, January 25, 2008, Arista v. Does 1-27, 2008 WL 222283, modified Oct. 29, 2008
"[N]either the parties' submissions nor the Court's own research has revealed any case holding the mere owner of an internet account contributorily or vicariously liable for the infringing activities of third persons.....In addition to the weakness of the secondary copyright infringement claims against Ms. Foster, there is a question of the plaintiffs' motivations in pursuing them..... [T]here is an appearance that the plaintiffs initiated the secondary infringement claims to press Ms. Foster into settlement after they had ceased to believe she was a direct or "primary" infringer." -Hon. Lee R. West, District Judge, Western District of Oklahoma, February 6, 2007, Capitol v. Foster, 2007 WL 1028532
"[A]n overwhelming majority of cases brought by recording companies against individuals are resolved without so much as an appearance by the defendant, usually through default judgment or stipulated dismissal.....The Defendant Does cannot question the propriety of joinder if they do not set foot in the courthouse." -Hon. S. James Otero, Central District of California, August 29, 2007, SONY BMG v. Does 1-5, 2007 ILRWeb (P&F) 2535
"Plaintiffs are ordered to file any future cases of this nature against one defendant at a time, and may not join defendants for their convenience."
-Hon. Sam Sparks and Hon. Lee Yeakel, District Judges, Western District of Texas, November 17, 2004, Fonovisa v. Does 1-41, 2004 ILRWeb (P&F) 3053
"The Court is unaware of any other authority that authorizes the ex parte subpoena requested by plaintiffs."
-Hon. Walter D. Kelley, Jr., District Judge, Eastern District of Virginia, July 12, 2007, Interscope v. Does 1-7, 494 F. Supp. 2d 388, vacated on reconsideration 6/20/08
"Plaintiffs contend that unless the Court allows ex parte immediate discovery, they will be irreparably harmed. While the Court does not dispute that infringement of a copyright results in harm, it requires a Coleridgian "suspension of disbelief" to accept that the harm is irreparable, especially when monetary damages can cure any alleged violation. On the other hand, the harm related to disclosure of confidential information in a student or faculty member's Internet files can be equally harmful.....Moreover, ex parte proceedings should be the exception, not the rule."
-Hon. Lorenzo F. Garcia, Magistrate Judge, District of New Mexico, May 24, 2007, Capitol v. Does 1-16, 2007 WL 1893603
"'Statutory damages must still bear some relation to actual damages." Hon. Michael J. Davis, Dist. Judge, U.S.District Court, Dist. Minnesota, January 22, 2010, Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset
"[T]his court finds that defendants' use of the same ISP and P2P networks to allegedly commit copyright infringement is, without more, insufficient for permissive joinder under Rule 20. This court will sever not only the moving defendants from this action, but all other Doe defendants except Doe 2."
-Hon. W. Earl Britt, District Judge, Eastern District of North Carolina, February 27, 2008, LaFace v. Does 1-38, 2008 WL 544992
"[L]arge awards of statutory damages can raise due process concerns. Extending the reasoning of Gore and its progeny, a number of courts have recognized that an award of statutory damages may violate due process if the amount of the award is "out of all reasonable proportion" to the actual harm caused by a defendant's conduct.[T]hese cases are doubtlessly correct to note that a punitive and grossly excessive statutory damages award violates the Due Process Clause....."Hon. Marilyn Hall Patel, Dist. Judge, N.D. California, June 1, 2005, In re Napster, 2005 US DIST Lexis 11498, 2005 WL 1287611
"[P]laintiffs can cite to no case foreclosing the applicability of the due process clause to the aggregation of minimum statutory damages proscribed under the Copyright Act. On the other hand, Lindor cites to case law and to law review articles suggesting that, in a proper case, a court may extend its current due process jurisprudence prohibiting grossly excessive punitive jury awards to prohibit the award of statutory damages mandated under the Copyright Act if they are grossly in excess of the actual damages suffered....."-Hon. David G. Trager, Senior District Judge, Eastern Dist. New York, November 9, 2006, UMG v. Lindor, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83486, 2006 WL 3335048
"'[S]tatutory damages should bear some relation to actual damages suffered'....(citations omitted) and 'cannot be divorced entirely from economic reality'". -Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin, Dist. Judge, Southern Dist. New York, August 19, 2008, Yurman v. Castaneda
"The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer to peer network cases.... The defendant is an individual, a consumer. She is not a business. She sought no profit from her acts..... [T]he damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs." -Hon. Michael J. Davis, District Judge, Dist. Minnesota, September 24, 2008, Capitol v. Thomas
"If there is an asymmetry in copyright, it is one that actually favors defendants. The successful assertion of a copyright confirms the plaintiff's possession of an exclusive, and sometimes very valuable, right, and thus gives it an incentive to spend heavily on litigation. In contrast, a successful defense against a copyright claim, when it throws the copyrighted work into the public domain, benefits all users of the public domain, not just the defendant; he obtains no exclusive right and so his incentive to spend on defense is reduced and he may be forced into an unfavorable settlement." US Court of Appeals, 7th Cir., July 9, 2008, Eagle Services Corp. v. H20 Industrial Services, Inc., 532 F.3d 620
"Customers who download music and movies for free would not necessarily spend money to acquire the same product.....RIAA’s request problematically assumes that every illegal download resulted in a lost sale."
-Hon. James P. Jones, Dist. Judge, Western Dist. Virginia, November 7, 2008, USA v. Dove