Changing Tack, RIAA Ditches MediaSentry, Wall Street Journal, 1/5/09

Via Wall Street Journal: Changing Tack, RIAA Ditches MediaSentry:

"In another sign of the music industry's recently announced retreat from a five-year-old antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music...

Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who maintains the Recording Industry vs. the People blog and who has represented more than a dozen clients fighting the RIAA, said he considered the decision to drop MediaSentry a "victory" for his clients...

Mr. Beckerman cites MediaSentry's practice of looking for available songs in people's file-sharing folders, downloading them, and using those downloads in court as evidence of copyright violations. He says MediaSentry couldn't prove defendants had shared their files with anyone other than MediaSentry investigators."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123109364085551895.html

Trial transcript of Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas now available online, Ray Beckerman's Recording Industry vs. The People Blog, 12/28/08

Via Ray Beckerman's Recording Industry vs. The People Blog: Trial transcript of Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas now available online:

"We are pleased to announce that the complete transcript of the Duluth, Minnesota, jury trial, which took place October 2, 2007, to October 4, 2007, in Capitol Records v. Thomas, is now available online:

Transcript, October 2, 2007, pp. 1-278

Transcript, October 3, 2007, pp. 280-543

Transcript, October 4, 2007, pp. 544-643"

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html#259200380767823862

RIAA appeal in Jammie Thomas case refused, Ars Technica, 12/29/08

Via Ars Technica: RIAA appeal in Jammie Thomas case refused:

"Saying that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals was quite clear on the matter, [federal judge Michael] Davis refused to allow the appeal in a December 23rd order. "While Plaintiffs can point to a number of courts from other jurisdictions that have disagreed with this Court's conclusion," he wrote, "the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has explicitly held that actual distribution is required."

With the "interlocutory" appeal denied, the RIAA will have to wait until a final judgment has been issued before filing an appeal. That means a complete retrial first; given the RIAA's new moves toward "graduated response" deals with ISPs and the cessation of its widespread legal campaign, it's not clear that the industry will be willing to gear up for yet another high-profile trial against Thomas."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081229-riaa-appeal-in-jammie-thomas-case-refused.html

RIAA Qualifies Statement on No New Copyright Lawsuits, Wired.com, 12/23/08

Via Wired.com: RIAA Qualifies Statement on No New Copyright Lawsuits:

"Cara Duckworth, an RIAA spokeswoman, e-mailed Threat Level in a bid to clear the air. She wrote that any suits recently filed were already in the "pipeline" for months.

"We are not initiating any new lawsuits and have not since August. Any lawsuit that has been filed since then is a named lawsuit or those for which we've received identifying information about the ISP (or issued the subpoena for). Simply put, we are continuing those that have already been in the pipeline but nothing new has been initiated since August," Duckworth said."

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/riaa-qualifies.html

Beckerman: RIAA's 'Vexatious' Charge Reeks with 'Falsehood and Fallacy', Wired.com, 11/07/08

Via Wired.com: Beckerman: RIAA's 'Vexatious' Charge Reeks with 'Falsehood and Fallacy'

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/beckerman-riaas.html