Monday, February 09, 2009

No new cases since December 16th

My preliminary research indicates that the RIAA has not filed a new case since December 15th.

I have received numerous reports, however, from all across the country, of the lawyers and "settlement" collectors telling defendants and defendants' lawyers that they are going to file lawsuits, in some cases sending draft complaints, if they don't receive the demanded settlement.

I have no explanation for this anomaly.





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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, come on now. The RIAA told Congress that it was dropping the lawsuits. Now why wouldn't anyone believe them?

Could it be that they have lied, cheated and otherwise gamed the system? Naw, it couldn't be that.

With the above sarcasm out of my system, I just wanted to note that it looks like the RIAA is on a runaway train heading for a cliff. Not only have they cheated a lot of families out of their life savings in order to "protect the artist" (read to make a buck), but they have really pissed off an entire generation.

Unless the author of the letter to his congressman says otherwise (http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html#7592065175501660143), I am going to send it to each of the 6 or so representatives that we have here in South Carolina.

If we can get our representatives behind this, then maybe this will be one more nail in their coffin.

Unknown said...

I agree Ray - that is certainly what it seems. It is difficult to track new cases against individual defendants because the industry files cases under so many different record label names. I try to maintain a database of the more common ones - Atlantic, Sony etc. - but the system is not infallible. However, in so far as cases against named defendants must have started out as Doe cases then I can confirm that there have been no new Doe cases.

As regards the inevitable mopping up operation to extort the last dregs of settlement money from those that have been exposed by the court system then we must wait and see what evidence surfaces. My gut feeling is that despite the massive success that the industry has had in pursuing ex parte cases through the courts and the (literally) millions of dollars bilked from the US taxpayer in court fees through their dubious use of joinder in these Doe cases, they have recouped comparatively little hard cash by way of actual paid settlements, When this is set against the damage caused to their customer base the whole experiment can only be deemed a commercial disaster however much they try to spin it.

Dave aka Jadeic