Monday, April 07, 2008

RIAA's extortion center outed?

A reader of p2pnet believes he has figured out the identity of the company running the RIAA's extortion -- er, settlement -- company:

RIAA extortion company: identified & located?

p2pnet news | RIAA News:- A long-time p2pnet reader and computer programmer says he’s 99.9% certain he’s unearthed the name of the company that may be running the RIAA’s so called ‘Settlement Center’.

“My information is correct based on his examination of data from several sources,” he states in an email, going on >>>

Hi Jon:

I’ve been doing a little internet research and I believe I’ve located the RIAA’s extortion centers.

It looks to me like they’re run by a company called P S C Group, LLC.

Below is the information documenting why I believe this company is involved:.....


Complete article



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

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking at the firm's website, it seems unlikely that these are the folks. They develop computer applications.

http://www.pscgroup.com

Kip Patterson

Kathleen Williamson said...

I wonder, then, whether this LLC should be added to the class action initiated by Lory Lybeck. It seems that they should be.
Furthermore, Lybeck should be able to get this same information about who this settlement center is through discovery in his case against the RIAA.
Kathleen Williamson

Scott said...

Hi Kip,

Well, they may or may not be, in my opinion. The phone number is associated with the company. They may just be an application service provider to manage and track the extortion letters. Or, they may also provide the warm bodies to answer the phones.

I'm still hoping that an attorney will pursue the libel angle in the cases (probably most of them) where a defendant is misidentified. Media Sentry could be vulnerable to this kind of attack. If PSC Group did have an active role in communicating the libel, they could also find themselves fending off lawsuits.

Do any libel attorneys read this blog?

Anonymous said...

The discovery I'd like to see against the SSC is if they have recordings of all the calls. Find out what they're actually telling callers. I can't believe that everything coming in to them isn't recorded, which could will really hurt them for their misrepresentations (e.g. the evidence to prove your guilt has already been secured).

XK-E

Travis said...

I have worked in call centers in various positions for almost 10 years now so I just wanted to comment on the recorded calls.

Many call centers monitor sporadicly and the probability of any individual call being monitored is very low. There is a significant cost investment to be able to monitor and then store every single call that comes in/goes out. Many telemarketing centers for example only record the very end of the call where the customer agrees to the sale.

I only see two reasons why they would decide to monitor/record the calls.

1) There is some local law that requires them to do so.

2) They have a contractual obligation to do so.

finally in every state I'm aware of with the exception of Arizona you must inform the other person that they are/can be recorded.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm. Whether it's these guys or someone else...

1. Any way to say they're practicing law without a license? (Negotiating and settling legal claims; in some cases, offering bogus legal advice to settlees...)

2. Are these potentially operating as unlicensed debt collectors? Are these claims for "consumer" purposes?

3. How does their participation affect their possible RICO liability?

--Unlicensed Investigator

Anonymous said...

Hmm. This is apparently old information:

http://www.muddlawoffices.com/pr/20060810RIAA.htm

Anonymous said...

on topic only in so far as it deals with RIAA, UMG and CD's but I have never ever read an introduction that hits the nail on its head better than the one in

http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/umg_v_augusto/AugustoMSJBrief.pdf

via

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/04/08

MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND
AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF
TROY AUGUSTO’S MOTION FOR
SUMMARY JUDGMENT

IMO a definetly "must read" that brings a little smile on your face.

btw. it's a matter before the Honourable Judge Otero who already expressed in a different case before him his concerns "that in [RIAA vs. People] 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"

Good to know that Mr Auguso is represented by the EFF and a Rowling book loving law firm :-)

Might be interesting to see how this attempt by UMG and RIAA to rewrite copyrightlaw plays out!

--
A_F

Anonymous said...

Alter_Fritz,

That's quite a filing you point us to, and the Harry Potter reference is outstanding! It certainly looks intended to chop off the RIAA's overreach into an area they don't control, no matter how much they wish they did.

I hope he wins easily, gets all his lawyer fees, expenses, and full compensation for all lost business and loss of reputation. The part where he answers the RIAA's contention that the DMCA only applies when they want it to apply is priceless!

-DM

Jadeic said...

An all-time classic methinks. Thanks for the link Alter_Fritz.

Dave