The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reportedly broke a court order after a federal judge told the RIAA specifically not to do something they were caught trying to do anyway.
As the Motown Records vs. John Doe legal case — a case involving Motown, Universal Music and BMG against students at the University of Southern California — heats up, the RIAA was given permission by District Court Judge Manuel Real to subpoena USC to receive names of students accused of file sharing.
The ruling told the RIAA that all collected information is "to be used for the sole purpose of obtaining injunctive relief pursuant to the complaint filed herein protecting plaintiff’s right under the Copyright Act." In Layman’s terms, the RIAA can help build its case against the file sharers, not try and negotiate settlements with them — which reportedly is exactly what the RIAA is doing.
After filing John Doe suits against alleged file sharers, the RIAA attempts to avoid costly trials, instead seeking anywhere from $2,000 up to $8,000 — or more — as settlement money.
Judge Real has not issued a statement indicating what will happen to the RIAA for ignoring part of his ruling. Universities believe turning over student information to the RIAA or other industry groups may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
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If you are serious about protecting a copyright, so be it, protect it. But to play these games shows that they only really care about adding money to the coffers and don't want to take a chance on losing a ruling in court, which makes me wonder how strong their cases are. Maybe they are worried they'll get a jury trial one day and the jury will say "You want thousands of dollars for some songs this person downloaded that they could easily have recorded for free off the radio? That's ludicrous, go pound sand!" And then they wouldn't be able to brow beat others into big cash settlements. Weenies.
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