RIAA Countersued For Racketeering

[Jorge]

There have been a growing number of stories recently about people finally fighting back against the various RIAA lawsuits, that are usually filed on the basis of a single IP address, without any effort being made to find out who might be responsible for any of the unauthorized sharing. This was a question that some had been asking since the RIAA first started filing lawsuits, but many people felt it was safer to just settle and pay the fine than to risk going to court and losing. However, since that one story of a woman fighting back, others have stepped up as well, and they may reach a new level, as one woman has now countersued the RIAA under racketeering charges and a slew of other charges: "fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of "outrage", and deceptive business practices." Some of those seem like pretty big stretches and won't get very far, but it should be quite an interesting case (if it actually gets to court). The charges of the RIAA hacking into her computer and spying on her are unlikely to get very far at all -- especially if the data was left open to be viewed by file sharing programs. The extortion charge is the really interesting one, as that's the biggest point that many critics have brought up in the past. The RIAA basically says they'll make these cases go away for a few thousand, and often make it clear that people should just pay up rather than fight it -- which certainly sounds a lot like extortion to most people. 

Read the complete article (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5770/RIAA+Countersued+For+Racketeering/)

[Excrement_Cranium]

What?

It's just good 'ol fashioned mob style business. You have a new kid? F*&% you, pay me! You haven't got paid yet? F*&%$ you, pay me! Can't pay me, I'm busting limbs untill you pay me.


If only labor unions were still allowed to use those tactics. Now it's just big companies that hide behind the facade of the coperations.

[Cavebiss]

god i hope these people win some of these countersuits. they have my support. FUCK THE RIAA.

[.:sp00ky:.]

lmao p2p users are always good for a laugh.

[crash4419]

yea mom i hope you win

[shawners]

anytime your given the option to settle rather then sued.. its rackateering.. There trying to get money without due process.. If they want people to stop, why not keep sueing instead of settleing?

[DigitalJunkie]

By using lawyers, it's called "Legal Extortion". They know there's no way they can sue thousands of people, it would jammed the legal system soo much, it could take years. By the way, the courts would not be pleased with that either!

[black_magiic]

Its good to see stuff like this. I hope it goes through.

[Jorge]

This is just a test

[Afn]

The case pleading is interesting reading. This case documents how the copyright cartel has organized it's own "police and investigation force" through shell businesses, including media sentry to use the courts to indoctrinate and terrorize people.

The doctrine of unclean hands a legal doctrine which is a defense to a complaint, which states that a party who is asking for a judgment cannot have the help of the court if he/she has done anything unethical in relation to the subject of the lawsuit. Thus, if a defendant can show the plaintiff had "unclean hands," the plaintiff's complaint will be dismissed or the plaintiff will be denied judgment.

So she is claiming that the content industries wanted to wage lawsuits against the alleged file sharing problem. So they racketeer a solution, and because lawsuits are good PR, the industry sets up it's own racketeering organization using media sentry to break in to computers and send what they collect to a "copyright collection agency" for enforcement.

Because lawsuits are good PR, they have set up a racketeering operation that generate lawsuits systematically with no real validity, so they can pursuade the general population to stop sharing files.

[Jorge]

this is just a test