Obama Sides With RIAA

**RACKnRAIL** · March 24th, 2009, 07:16 PM

I just saw this. I don't know if the source is good, but it still deserves a look.

The Obama administration for the first time is weighing in on a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing lawsuit and is supporting hefty awards of as much as $150,000 per purloined music track.

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**mfgbypooter** · March 24th, 2009, 08:19 PM

Proof positive that the Obama administration is all about gobbling the cock.

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**El Comandante** · March 24th, 2009, 08:56 PM

The article links the Memorandum of Law in Support here: http://beckermanlegal.com/pdf/?file=...22DOJBrief.pdf

It's an interesting read.

It's important to note that the Justice Department is not (and should not be) an extension of the administrations policy and ideological bent. We saw the disastrous effect that had on DOJ as career attorneys were fired and weeded out in favor of Bush lackeys who used political or ideological factors to hire a slew of inexperienced "conservative" lawyers.

My point is: the law does not (should not change) with a change in administration. The USA's interpretation of the law should remain constant.

The memo itself is DOJ's take on the Constitutional arguments raised by the petitioner. It is a legal decision based on DOJ's analysis of the law. The Justice Department lawyer Michelle R. Bennett argues that the law is constitutional and relies on a 1919 Supreme Court case. She argues that the statute should be upheld because it does not impose penalties "so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportionate to the offense and obviously unreasonable."

I think she is dead wrong given the fact that the petitioner could be hit with a $1 million dollar verdict for the seven songs he downloaded.

**Drew Wilson** · March 24th, 2009, 09:05 PM

The fact that the Obama industry sides with the copyright industry didn't surprise me in the least given that Holleywood went Democrat countless times already. The thought were solidified when the administration put RIAA members into the department of justice and resolidified when he deemed the documents that could have a bad and lasting effect on your rights as you know it as "State secrets" and must be witheld from the public in whole while a who's who of copyright lobbyists is allowed unfettered access to those documents. Only one side of the debate is allowed to debate the documents and the administration basically gave them a free pass all the way up until very recently when the administration said that this issue would be reviewed in terms of transparency.

While it's a good move to rethink their stance, I can't help but wonder if that means the difference between the American public getting screwed privately or the American public getting screwed out in the open over the issue of digital rights.

The administration has done plenty of decent stuff, but falls short on privacy issues and digital rights issues so far in my books. Disappointing? Yes. Surprised? Not entirely.