Friday, October 12, 2007

Cary Sherman Asks: "Who ya gonna believe, Ray Beckerman, or the Register of Copyrights?"

Just came across this report on Media Wonk blog at Content Agenda:

Media Wonk
Paul Sweeting, Editor
(Paul Sweeting is the editor of ContentAgenda.com and a columnist for Video Business. He has covered the home entertainment industries since 1985 for Billboard, Variety, Publishers Weekly and other leading business publications. He is based in Washington, DC.)

RIAA: No alternative to law suits - October 11, 2007

RIAA president Cary Sherman admits there's a legal issue to appeal in the case of Capitol v. Thomas, but he's not worried about the outcome.

"It basically comes down to, who ya gonna believe, Ray Beckerman, or the Register of Copyrights?" he told Media Wonk at a "Copyright Expo" on Capitol Hill.

Beckerman is the lawyer who runs the Recording Industry vs. The People blog and a vocal critic of the RIAA's strategy of pursuing litigation against individual downloaders. In recent posts, he criticized the Thomas judge's now controversial instruction to the jury that merely making a file available to others on a peer-to-peer network infringes the copyright owner's exclusive distribution right, whether or not an actual file transfer takes place.
Complete article

(Editor's note: I'm sure my readers know what the correct answer to the question is.

Question: Who are you going to believe, Ray Beckerman, or the Register of Copyrights?

Answer: Neither. I'm going to read the statute and believe what the statute says.

Now if the question were: "Who are you going to believe, Ray Beckerman or Cary Sherman?" Then the correct answer is "Ray Beckerman, he doesn't lie."

-R.B.)



Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net






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





4 comments:

Lost in Thought said...

As for the black eye the industry may have earned from the Thomas case, Sherman said he's used to it. "We knew that would happen, we knew that would happen when we started this [litigation] program"

Wow, he admitted that the RIAA is poking more holes in an already sinking ship? That should provide some interesting material for cross (if he ever gets to testify) regarding one of the REAL reasons that CD sales are tanking. The RIAA doesn't need enemies when it has a a leader like that!

pepper said...

Well, well Ray. It looks as if you are the proverbial "burr" rubbing Sherman the wrong way. Methinks he's a little ne... ne.. ne... ne.. nervous. Keep up the good work!

Todd said...

You should consider it a compliment that you've attracted the attention of Sherman.

I'm not sure Sherman quite understood what he was talking about when he tried to compare an excellent, experienced lawyer well versed in copyright law to the copyright registry, but it certainly does go to show how little the record labels understand what they are dealing with.

I hope Sherman attempts to single you out more frequently, to further showcase his incompetence and ignorance to the world.

raybeckerman said...

thanks todd.... i do consider it a compliment...