The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), well known for giving its legal team a workout, will head back to court as two lawyers known for defending alleged file sharers plan to file a class-action lawsuit against the RIAA during the summer.
Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and attorney Kiwi Camara aims to get back the "$100+ million" that has been collected by the RIAA’s litigation campaign against alleged file sharers. The RIAA traditionally sent out John Doe lawsuits to force an ISP to turn over the identity of an Internet user, who then received a legal warning — either pay a sum from $2,000 up to $8,000, or face going to court with the RIAA.
Just one person, Camara’s client Jammie Thomas, chose to go to trial, with everyone else electing to just pay the RIAA.
But Camara goes even further back in the evidence chain. To prove copyright infringement, the RIAA needs evidence of that infringement, of course, but it also needs to prove it owns the copyrights in question. If it can’t establish that fact, the case also falls apart.
This sounds like a long shot—surely the record labels did something as basic as register their copyrights?—but Camara tells us that it’s not so simple.
"They basically committed a technical screw-up," he says of the RIAA. That’s because lawyers provided the court with "true and correct" copies of their copyright registrations (perhaps accurate but not "official), but these are not the "certified copies" required under federal rules of evidence.
Interesting thought process by Camara. I’d surely like to think the RIAA has all of its bases covered in such a high-profile legal case, but the first Thomas trial showed there were mistakes made by both sides.
The second Thomas trial begins tomorrow, and Camara looks forward to challenging the RIAA yet again.
I’m not sure if Nesson and Camara will be able to actually get any monetary compensation, but it’s interesting to see the RIAA get a taste of its own medicine. Both Camara and Nesson have defended file sharers and are obviously very aware of the legal issues surrounding peer-to-peer file sharing.
At least this summer will have some possibly entertaining RIAA-related news, so keep an eye out for updates!
Do you think the attorney duo will receive any money?
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