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Worst lawyer ever?
By adamg on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 5:47pm
TedF ponders the case of the Harvard professor (no, not that one), who convinced the BU student to fight the music-downloading charges, which is all well and good, only the cases usually wind up with a settlement of a few thousand dollars, unlike the $675,000 verdict against the kid.
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Comments
b.u. downloader
has anybody seen this "kid"? he is 25 yrs old and he knew what he was doing was illegal. i used to use napster until i got a nasty email from roy orbison's lawyers. i deleted everything and took napster off my computer. that was almost ten years ago and it was then i was made to realize that this type of file sharing is stealing and illegal. are you telling me this "kid" didnt know what he was doing? the fine is absurd but he had to know what he was doing was stealing.
See it as disobedience
It's not theft, it's infringement. That's a big difference. Did you ever tape the radio when you were younger? Combine any of those into a mix tape and give it to a girlfriend/boyfriend? That's legal. Nobody's going to win a $700,000 lawsuit over a mix tape.
Now, nobody uses tape any more, they use CDs and iPods. Ever pull CDs that you've bought onto your computer and made a mix CD and give it to someone? Whoa ho, buddy boy, every song is going to cost you at least $750 a piece for that infringement! The RIAA will see you in Federal Court!
Why make a mix CD when your friend may not like half of the songs you put on there. I know, I know, it's the thought that counts, but what if you just opened up access to them so that they could pick and choose their own mix CD? And really, if you can give the music to your friend that way, then you should be able to give it to anyone that way and anyone else should be able to give it to you that way.
Besides, until very very recently you couldn't even buy ANY music a la carte even if you wanted to. And when you did, you couldn't move it to your portable device, burn a CD with it, or many other PERSONAL uses because of the digital restrictions placed on the file you paid for like a sucker.
No, this all becomes a problem because the RIAA wasn't willing to monetize the demand for a la carte purchases and instead decided to legislate in an attempt to keep things stuck in the past instead of moving forward with technology....the same technology that made them who they are in the first place. Add on top of all of that the fact that the RIAA members have created a profit system that hires artists solely for marketability and not for musicality and they've not only strangled technology but they've strangled music as a whole. The consumer is the loser and the only way they have to disobey the corporate holders of everything music is to not even pay the $0.99 per song for something that the consumer doesn't even feel is valued above $0.01.
Don't forget showing a
Don't forget showing a DVD/BD/Movie to anyone else then a immediate family member.
GF and you want to sit and watch a flick? Well, you need to buy a specific license for that one viewing.
IP and Copyright laws in this country have been messed up for quite some time.
No, that's incorrect.
No, that's incorrect. Copyright only covers certain public performances of motion pictures and other audiovisual works. Private performances are not subject to copyright law at all.
So as long as you do not perform it at "a place open to the public, nor at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered," nor do you transmit it to such places, nor do you transmit it to the public (whether they receive it at one place or many places, or at one time or multiple times), you're okay. You can see the relevant language at 17 USC ยงยง 101 and 106(4), if you care.
Thus you do not need to pay to watch a movie at home with your girlfriend. You may need to pay to obtain a copy of the movie to watch (e.g. buying a DVD at the store), but that is a separate matter.
This having been said, copyright laws all around the world, as well as the US, have been severely screwed up for over 30 years, and pretty screwed up for a good century. It's just now people are really noticing.
He tried to settle numerous
He tried to settle numerous times, but each time they kept increasing the settlement amount.