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RIAA Accused of Extortion and Conspiracy in Tampa, Florida, case, UMG v. Del Cid
In a new Tampa, Florida, case, UMG v. Del Cid, the defendant has filed the following five (5) counterclaims against the RIAA, under Florida, federal, and California law:

1. Trespass

2. Computer Fraud and Abuse (18 USC 1030)

3. Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices (Fla. Stat. 501.201)

4. Civil Extortion (CA Penal Code 519 & 523)

5. Civil Conspiracy involving (a) use of private investigators without license in violation of Fla. Stat. Chapter 493; (b) unauthorized access to a protected computer system, in interstate commerce, for the purpose of obtaining information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (a)(2)(C); (c) extortion in violation of Ca. Penal Code §§ 519 and 523; and (d) knowingly collecting an unlawful consumer debt, and using abus[ive] means to do so, in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692a et seq. and Fla. Stat. § 559.72 et seq.
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Flea Markets Raided In Massive Piracy Sting
HILLSBORO, Ore. -- Ten people were arrested Saturday in the largest piracy sting in Oregon history, authorities said.

The sting occurred Saturday afternoon at two different flea markets in Hillsboro.

Police said 15,000 DVDs and 30,000 CDs were confiscated during the raids at The Millennium and at The M and M Swap Meet.
Click here to find out more!

In all, the fakes are worth more than $750,000, according to police.

Beaverton police officers said they started the investigation after a tip six months ago.

More than 20 investigators from the movie and music industry flew up from California for the raid.

Representatives from the movie and recording industry said pirating is costing them millions of dollars, because they don't see any of the money from the fake recordings.

"We have gone into a survival mode to maintain our ability to function as we have in the past," said Marcus Cohen, of the Recording Industry Association of America.
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Swedish court upholds file-sharing conviction
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish court of appeals on Tuesday upheld the country's first conviction for sharing music files over the Internet without paying in what the recording industry hailed as a victory.

The Appellate Court backed a verdict by a lower court in October last year that saw 45-year-old Jimmy Sjostrom fined 20,000 Swedish crowns ($2,843) for infringing intellectual property rights by sharing four music files.

"The verdict only concerns four songs and it costs the one sentenced about 20,000 crowns in fines -- that is 5,000 crowns per song," IFPI said in a statement.
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France: The SPPF Sues Morpheus, Azureus and Shareaza
In a ridiculous and grotesque judicial move, made possible by the DADVSI law passed by the UMP government and, above all, by the Vivendi amendment supported by Nicolas Sarkozy, the SPPF, which represents independent labels in France, is suing three P2P software vendors.
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Anti-piracy company tells Congress it can eliminate College P2P
SafeMedia Corp challenged colleges and universities to work to eliminate illegal P2P file-sharing of copyrighted material on campus networks in testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology.

The House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing today called "The Role of Technology in Reducing Illegal File-sharing: A University Perspective" which focused on the experiences of universities that have implemented technological measures to reduce P2P sharing on campus networks.
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Movie Camcording Bill Clears Debate, Hearings, and Three Readings in 80 Minutes
Thursday June 14, 2007
Bill C-59, the anti-camcording bill, blazed through the House of Commons yesterday. The bill was debated and given all three readings (hearings were deemed unnecessary) in only 80 minutes, less time than it takes to actually watch most movies. The bill is now at the Senate awaiting approval.
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Counterclaims Dismissed in Binghamton, NY, case, Interscope v. Kimmel
In an upstate New York case, in federal court in Binghamton, Interstate v. Kimmel, the Judge has granted the RIAA's motion to dismiss the defendant's counterclaims for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement and for copyright misuse:
Defendant is represented by Richard A. Altman of Manhattan. Similar motions had been made to dismiss virtually identical counterclaims in two other cases handled by Mr. Altman, Atlantic v. Shutovsky, in which the motion was denied, and Lava v. Amurao, in which the motion was denied as to the copyright misuse counterclaim, and in which the Court's order denied the motion as to the declaratory judgment claim but at oral argument the Judge had indicated he was granting the motion as to that claim.
You can read a pdf doc about the case at the above link.
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RIAA Ex Parte Discovery Application Against University of New Mexico Denied!!!
The RIAA's ex parte motion to compel the University of New Mexico to disclose the identities of its students has been denied, in the District Court of New Mexico, by Magistrate Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia, in Capitol v. Does 1-16.
Read the reasons at the above link. :) :P
Critical Setback for RIAA in New Mexico - slyck news

Deadlines postponed in Arista v. LimeWire
The deadlines for conclusion of pretrial discovery and for the making of dispositive motions (i.e. motions for summary judgment) have been extended in Arista v. LimeWire. Under the new case management order, Summary judgment motions are scheduled to be fully briefed by March 18, 2008.
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SueTube: sex, copyright, and rock & roll
A 3 page article about who's suing Youtube.
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p2p-sharing-rules wrote:SueTube: sex, copyright, and rock & roll
A 3 page article about who's suing Youtube.
Interestin' stuff that. I hope YouTube don't get hit too hard. I like them.
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p2p-sharing-rules wrote:SueTube: sex, copyright, and rock & roll
A 3 page article about who's suing Youtube.
Should anything major happen to Youtube (and I mean in the same sort of way that contributed to Napster's downfall) I think instead of being the end of the internet as it is, and turning into TV (as was said in the article: "...potentially turn the Internet into TV, a place where nothing gets on the air until a cadre of lawyers signs off...") I think it will be a new beginning.

I think online media will become more sophisticated. I mean, sure, we have your Youtube's, Sopcasts etc, but imagine if some sort of decentralized software was created, allowing people to view video clips, watch live streams etc without ever relying on a single set of servers.

Youtube is reliant on a single set of servers, so Viacom and the like should be grateful, any media they want removed they can get removed without much fuss.

If Youtube goes, and there is a crackdown of sorts on media sites, we could end up seeing a decentralized system. Good for the users, but bad for the media companies.
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Court Schedules Evidentiary Hearing in Capitol v. Foster
In Capitol v. Foster, where Judge Lee West has granted the defendant's motion for attorneys fees, and the RIAA has objected to the reasonableness of Ms. Foster's attorneys fees, the Court has granted the RIAA's request for an evidentiary hearing:
RIAA Designates Dr. Doug Jacobson as Expert Witness in Texas case, Atlantic v. Boggs
In Atlantic v. Boggs, the RIAA has designated Dr. Doug Jacobson -- the same expert witness that is the subject of an in limine exclusion motion in UMG v. Lindor -- as its expert witness.

It is very unusual -- indeed it is probably a violation of the Court's rules -- to file such a document with the Court, which is what the RIAA did in this instance.
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EFF sides with TorrentSpy in MPAA lawsuit
As expected, the Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to file a friends-of-the-court brief in support of TorrentSpy, the search engine accused of copyright violations.

The top motion-picture studios filed a lawsuit last year against TorrentSpy and other search engines that locate torrent files. The studios allege in their suit that these companies simplify the illegal sharing of copyright content.

The magistrate judge hearing the case recently ruled that computer RAM or random-access memory, is a tangible document that can be stored and must be turned over in a lawsuit. If allowed to stand, the groundbreaking decision may mean that anyone defending themselves in a civil suit could be required to turn over information in their computer's RAM hardware. This could force companies and individuals to store vast amounts of data, say technology experts.

The judge has ordered TorrentSpy to create logs detailing users' activities on the site.

Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with EFF, which advocates for the rights of Internet users, said the group has notified representatives from TorrentSpy and the motion picture studios of their intent to file an amicus brief that argues for a reversal of the judge's decision.

He added that EFF is also looking for others to join them on the brief.

"This is the first time the court has found that information found only in RAM is subject to preservation," von Lohmann said. "Companies may be obliged to begin logging and producing information about conversations that occur on digital phones, which are stored on RAM. Nobody is asked to preserve records for analog phone conversations."

Lawyers from the Motion Picture Assoc. of America argue that the law has always found RAM to be electronically stored information and that there won't be any significant impact to others besides those engaged in illegal file sharing.
Why ain't they going after google or any other search engines?You can easily find torrent files using a search engine site like google just as easy as you can using a torrent search engine site.
:? How do save logs from your RAM ?
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Err, huh? What on earth is that judge talking about?
Many types of RAM are volatile, which means that unlike some other forms of computer storage such as disk storage and tape storage, they lose all data when the computer is powered down
Also from Wikipedia
On May 29, 2007, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that a computer server's RAM is a tangible document that can be stored and must be turned over in a lawsuit. This could force companies and individuals to store vast amounts of data in case they are involved in a civil suit.

Dean McCarron, a principle analyst at Mercury Research, said "RAM is the working storage of a computer and designed to be impermanent, potentially your RAM is being modified up to several billions of times a second. The judge's order simply reveals to me a lack of technical understanding."
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potentially your RAM is being modified up to several billions of times a second.
Hmm so that would make a pretty damn long log file of just your RAM's activity & would fill up your HHD pretty quick with useless logs.
Wouldn't it be privacy invasion having the cartels reading the logs with private info stored in them like e-mails , surfing the web activity , online banking info or other secure online activity? I wouldn't like to have the cartels getting their dirty hands on my private online activity & then have them try to use it against me.
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