Friday, June 05, 2009

Thomas-Rasset opposes RIAA motion to bar her from making objections

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's lawyers have filed their opposition to the RIAA's motion to prevent defendant from objecting to the plaintiffs' copyright registrations, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset.

Defendant's response to plaintiff's motion to bar her from making objections

[Ed. note. The RIAA's motion is a very strange motion. I have a sneaking suspicion that the RIAA realizes it has a problem with its paperwork, something which went undetected last time around, but is unlikely to escape detection this time around, and Timothy Reynolds -- being an inexperienced lawyer -- thought this would be the best way to avoid the problem. Actually all he's succeeded in doing is to is to red flag the problem, because this motion has the chance of a snowball in Hell of being granted. -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

1 comment:

Albert said...

It sounds like the problem with the registration is one of two problems:

They took a shortcut and only recorded a copyright registration on an entire album, instead of the proper way of recording a copyright on the individual songs on the album. The Defense is in effect saying that doing this ONLY copyrights the collection of songs on the album, it does not protect individual songs like the one as issue, so guess they wont be able to get anything but actual damages if the individual song is not registered.....

The other aspect has to do with "work for hire" The record companies claim all the songs are "work for hire" when in fact they are works of specific artists that are not named in the registration application as required by law. This might also get their registration thrown out....

Problem # 1 above sounds like the shortcut they have been taking with their John Doe cases. Wonder how much they have cheated the Copyright office in fees by not registering each song.

Now I see why they are so afraid of fair use. Since the entire album is the work, 1 song is only 1/16 or so of the total work and that one song might be found to be fair use.....

Since both of these are fatal to their position, that is why they would perfer no objections be made.... Lets hope Ray is right and this is not granted.

Albert