Friday, July 30, 2010

Joel Tenenbaum files appeal from judgment

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the defendant has filed a notice of appeal.

So now both sides have initiated their appeal, and the fireworks can begin.

Defendant's notice of appeal

[Ed. note. My prediction: if appeals court reaches constitutional question, it will agree that due process standards as enunciated by Judge Gertner are applicable, but will remand for proper computation of (a) approximate actual damages and (b) proper multiple of actual damages. Court will reject lower court's application of multiple of minimum statutory damages, instead of multiple of actual damages. -R.B.]

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Indie music promoter @JessicaNorthey interviews me on "Finger Candy Media" website

Social media maven, indie music promoter, and all around great lady, @JessicaNorthey, has posted an interview of me on the Finger Candy Media website:

Law+Twitter+Music+Nature+Friendship= @RayBeckerman

Meet Ray Beckerman, to quote his own Twitter Bio: “Law, social justice, nature, human & animal rights, arts, ecology, indie music & film”

If you are on Twitter and you pay attention to who really connects with others, gives back and actually makes the community/ecosystem better, then you are no doubt aware of Ray Beckerman! If you haven’t heard of him, he is an ambassador of what Social Media is all about.....
Complete article


Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

Thursday, July 29, 2010

ABA Journal: $17M for Legal Fees Is Money Well Spent, RIAA Says

Interesting article in the ABA Journal today:


$17M for Legal Fees Is Money Well Spent, RIAA Says

Posted Jul 29, 2010 6:00 AM CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The Recording Industry Association of America is defending more than $17 million spent on legal fees in 2008 after bloggers claimed the organization’s aggressive pursuit of damages for illegal downloading was yielding little legal in the way of legal recoveries.
Complete article


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Thursday, July 22, 2010

RIAA appeals from SONY v Tenenbaum judgment

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the RIAA has appealed from the judgment awarding it $67,500 for defendant's downloading of 30 mp3 song files.

RIAA's notice of appeal

Commentary & discussion:

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Both sides ask court to dispense with settlement mediation in Capitol Records v Thomas-Rasset

In Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset, both sides have filed a joint motion to be relieved of their obligation to proceed to mediation under a Special Master.

Joint Motion for Relief from order directing settlement mediation under Special Master



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An afterthought about the RIAA's financial "disclosures"


The amounts of money the RIAA spent on legal fees from 2006 to 2008 -- approximately $20,000,000 per year -- were in the ballpark with my estimates (I'd estimated $15,000,000).

But the amounts collected from the settlements were not; they were far lower. I would have expected the RIAA to have been collecting in the neighborhood of $5,000,000 per year during that period, rather than a mere $450,000 per year.

What if my estimates were correct, and 90% of the moneys collected were siphoned off to the Big 4 record labels who were the plaintiffs?

If so, it would mean the RIAA was spending general membership money to help just a few of its members.

But that would raise problems with

(a) the Internal Revenue Service, and

(b) the RIAA membership.

So it must not be the case. Right?

Just askin'.

If the RIAA lawyers out there could clarify this for me, I'd appreciate it. I understand the ABA Journal has asked you to comment, but you haven't responded yet.












Commentary & discussion:

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ha ha ha ha ha. RIAA paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 in 2008 to recover only $391,000!!!

Big hat tip to my friend Jon Newton at p2pnet.net for uncovering these documents.

The RIAA's "business plan" is even worse than I'd guessed it was.

The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000. [ps there were many other law firms feeding at the trough too; these were just the ones listed among the top 5 independent contractors.]

Embarrassing.

If the average settlement were $3,900, that would mean 100 settlements for the entire year.

As bad as it was, I guess it was better than the numbers for 2007, in which more than $21 million was spent on legal fees, and $3.5 million on "investigative operations" ... presumably MediaSentry. And the amount recovered was $515,929.

And 2006 was similar: they spent more than $19,000,000 in legal fees and more than $3,600,000 in "investigative operations" expenses to recover $455,000.

So all in all, for a 3 year period, they spent around $64,000,000 in legal and investigative expenses to recover around $1,361,000.

Shrewd.

No wonder they get paid the big bucks

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Friday, July 09, 2010

$675,000 verdict reduced to $67,500 in SONY v Tenenbaum

In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court has reduced the jury's award from $675,000, or $22,500 per infringed work, to $67,500, or $2,250 per infringed work, on due process grounds, holding that the jury's award was unconstitutionally excessive.

In a 64-page decision, District Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that:

-to decide the issue on common law remittitur grounds would not have avoided the constitutional question, since plaintiffs had indicated they would not accept a "remitted" award, but would instead proceed to a second trial in the event of remittitur;
-the award of $22,250 per infringed work could not withstand scrutiny under the Due Process Clause and was unconstitutionally excessive;
-$2,250 per infringed work was the maximum amount that the Constitution would permit given the facts of this case;
-the Gore, Campbell, and Williams line of cases was applicable to determining the constitutionality of statutory damages awards
-statutory damages must bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages
-the actual damages sustained by plaintiffs was no more than $30
-the benefit to the defendant was in the neighborhood of $1500
-it was permissible to treble the minimum statutory damages due to defendant's wilfulness
Decision reducing jury verdict from $675,000 to $67,500

[Ed. note. Since the Court concluded that the actual damages were ~ $1 per work, or $30 total, I don't understand how it arrived at the conclusion that an award of 2250 times that amount passes constitutional muster. -R.B.]

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