RIAA, MPAA Being Hit By Significant Layoffs

Major staff reductions have been underway at both the RIAA and MPAA, and sources state the layoffs at the RIAA are far more than was previously thought. From Hypebot:

"It is about 90-100+ people across the US and global offices - anti-piracy, coordinated IFPI/BPI etc - trust me it's a bloodbath...

(Major label heads) Hands, Morris are squeezing the ____ out of these guys after the ISP failure and a major budget cut. (The) RIAA as you know it is probably history by Tuesday of next week, a formal announcement is being drafted for drop next week.

The new group is a aggregate of IFPI + remaining pieces of BPI + RIAA - (a) new leaner, coordinated group...DC offices are getting closed except for one part of one floor on Conn. Ave., just for the address."

The MPAA is also reportedly laying off 10% of it's staff. From CNet news:

The Motion Picture Association of America, much maligned by file sharers everywhere, has gone through a "significant" round of layoffs, according to a studio source. The source said the layoffs were well over 10 percent and more reductions are expected.

Judge Calls Kazza Mom Trial A 'Farce,' Tosses Verdict

Calling the jury's punishment "unprecedented and oppressive," U.S. District of Minnesota Chief Judge Michael Davis ordered a new trial for Jammie Thomas, the 'Kazza mom.'
Thomas, who was ordered to pay a $222,000 penalty for sharing 24 songs through the peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing network, is off the hook, for now. The court granted Thomas a new trial, based on the findings of a formal trial error. While the grant does not impact the penalty amount by itself, the court described the amount previously awarded to the RIAA 'unprecedented and excessive' and even called upon Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address the liability and damages in P2P network cases for individuals, not businesses.
In a 44-page statement, Davis urged the U.S. Congress to improve copyright laws to prevent "oppressive" penalties in similar cases.

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RIAA Speaks-Defends It's Strategies

Listening to TwiT this morning and Don Reisinger revealed he interviewed Cara Duckworth, spokesperson for the RIAA, about the insane College Deterrence program and their lawsuit strategy in general. [Not familiar with that? The RIAA sent out a new wave of 407 'pre-litigation settlement letters' to 18 universities nationwide as part of an ongoing campaign against online music theft. The letters claim evidence of 'significant abuse' of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement. They have actually set up an online 'checkout' program for those students who want to do the right thing and pay a settlement without all that hassle of going to court. I'm not kidding.]
The entire transcript will be posted tomorrow, but what has already been posted is not likely to win any converts to the RIAA's side.

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RIAA: Copying CDs To Your Hard Drive Is Stealing

And the RIAA insanity continues...apparently they won't be satisfied until they figure out a way to charge each person for every time they play a song.
Just about everybody these days with a computer uses it to copy their CDs (that they own) for the convenience of playing music on their computer, in their car, or on a portable music player. Now, according to the RIAA, we're all thieves.
In a brief filed late last week, the RIAA said that the MP3 files on a PC owned by file-sharing defendants Jeffrey and Pamela Howell were "unauthorized copies" whether or not they were ever shared on a P2P network. Huh? The Howells state they copied their music so they could use one of those nifty mp3 players, which should be covered under fair use, and they never knowingly shared music over the internet. They have gone to trial without a lawyer to defend themselves against the RIAA.
In the Kazza Mom case, Sony BMG's head of litigation testified that she believed that ripping your own CDs is stealing.

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song. Making 'a copy' of a song you own is just a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'."

Well, what do you expect from Sony. I'm trying to wrap my head around the logic of this. I'm stealing my own CD I bought legally by copying it to my computer even if it is done for my own use and not to sell/distribute pirated copies. I guess we're all criminals now in the eyes of the RIAA.

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DOJ Files FOC Brief: Kazza Mom Verdict Is Cool

For whatever reason, the Department of Justice decided to chime in on the $222,000 Kazza mom verdict. You can read all my previous posts regarding this, just click on the RIAA tag at the end of this post. "This Court may find that defendant has waived her challenge to Congress's statutory damages provision by submitting 'jury instructions and approv[ing] the verdict form that allowed the jury to consider the full range of statutory damages under the Copyright Act," the DOJ argued in it's friend of the court brief.
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Judge To Record Labels: Reveal Wholesale Costs Of Music Downloads

One of the significant controversies regarding the RIAA's P2P lawsuits have been over the damages they seek when suing someone. The RIAA has asked for $750 to $150,000 per infringing file shared in many of the lawsuits. This has been argued by many to be unconstitutionally excessive; it has been put forward that a much more reasonable amount of damages to seek would be the actual amount of a lost sale if the song were legally downloaded from a legitimate music service .
Wholesale costs of music downloads up to now have been a closely guarded secret of RIAA member companies, but is thought to be around 70 cents a song. Now in UMG v. Lindor, the judge has ordered the record labels suing her produce this mystery figure for the songs involved in her case. The lawyer for the defendant in this case has argued statutory damages not exceed 10 times the amount of actual damages, which would come to around $7 per infringing music file, not hundreds or thousands of dollars as has been awarded in previous cases.

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Judge To RIAA: Why Shouldn't I Throw Out All Your Subpoenas?

The saga of RIAA vs. 19 GWU John Does continues...
After that student, John Doe #3 filed his fairly well-argued motion last week, the RIAA's legal position has been weakened.

It doesn't look like they will be able to use either the CCPA or the DMCA as basis for these subpoenas. In layman's terms, the CCPA is a law that actually protects the personal information of customers of cable service providers except in the event of detection of cable piracy. Since GWU is not a cable provider, this law is argued to not apply and has been successfully used before in an RIAA lawsuit. The DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act, requires content owners to file a takedown notice against the entity hosting the infringing content before taking legal action. Since GWU did not host the content, it seems the DMCA also will not be able to be used to authorize these subpoenas.

In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn't be quashed.

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Student Named In Subpoena Files Motion Against RIAA

'John Doe #3' is a student at George Washington University that was named in a subpoena filed by the RIAA. He has filed a motion with the court to have that subpoena quashed and the complaint dismissed. He uses several compelling arguments in his favor; and if successful, could become significant roadblocks to the RIAA's shotgun lawsuits against students.

An anonymous George Washington University student targeted by the RIAA for file-sharing is seeking to have the subpoena served on his school quashed and the complaint dismissed. In his motion, the unnamed student raises a couple of issues that could become significant roadblocks for the RIAA in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing.

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New Bill Wants Colleges To Become Copyright Cops For RIAA

I've been trying to wrap my head around this one. It's amazing that the entertainment industry has this much power. I guess I'm being naive, the RIAA and MPAA are industry associations that, like trade unions, wield enormous political power. Right from it's website, the RIAA's ''mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality."
So far the RIAA has been suing individuals it claims violate copyrights of member companies. They have had mixed results dealing directly with colleges and universities to stem the tide of P2P file sharing on campus networks. Now they want some additional leverage.

A massive education bill introduced into Congress contains a provision that would force colleges and universities to offer "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing under the pain of losing all federal financial aid. Section 494 of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 is entitled "Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention" that could have just as easily been called "Motion Picture and Recording Industry Subsidies," as it could force schools into signing up for subscription-based services like Napster and Rhapsody.

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University Says 'No' To RIAA Demand

The University of Oregon is believed to be the first US educational institution to refuse a RIAA demand to hand over the names of students alleged to have illegally downloaded music. Two legitimate reasons were given, one was that due to double occupancy dorms, it is not possible to identify an individual from even an internal IP address. Another was that complying with the demand meant conducting an investigation to create evidence for the RIAA, which the university is not obligated to do.

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RIAA Sues Usenet.com, Decries It As Next Napster

The Recording Industry Association of America is suing usenet.com, decrying it as the next Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer, illicit file-sharing sites.
I wonder if they think they are actually suing usenet itself...
This of course comes after their big victory against Kazza Mom, Jammie Thomas. Now after their big win they seem to be adding a new component to the lawsuit campaign against single moms, children, grandmothers, dead people, and people that don't have computers.

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Kazza Mom Appeals Excessive Judgment

A week after saying she would appeal the $222,000 verdict, Jammie Thomas has officially asked the court for a retrial on the actual damages suffered by the plaintiff, the RIAA. The argument has to do the the RIAA seeking statutory damages as they always do, and not punitive damages. Any award above and beyond the plaintiff's actual damages is being claimed to be punitive and unconstitutional. Should the court decide against a new trial on damages, Jammie has 30 days to appeal the actual verdict, possibly including that interesting jury instruction given by the judge.

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Survey Reveals 80% of Students Have MP3 Player

Well, that headline isn't so shocking I guess. But there were some other interesting results of Piper Jaffray’s bi-annual survey of high school students. Of the 80% that own an mp3 player (a figure that has doubled in the last year and a half) 82% have an iPod. It seems the same 82% are also downloading music and of these, two thirds are still illegally downloading music on P2P networks.
Looks like for many, the RIAA lawsuit campaign is not having much effect.
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Madonna Dumps Record Industry

Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Jamiroquai have all reportedly dropped their record labels and have started selling music directly to the public. Now news is Madonna is dropping Maverick (Warner)and has signed a $120 million deal with L.A. based concert promotion firm Live Nation to distribute three studio albums, promote concert tours, sell merchandise and license Madonna’s name. Whats interesting about that is Live Nation is not an RIAA member company. So while she's not going to be selling music directly to the public like the three bands I mentioned, the RIAA (who has sued everyone from 12 year old girls to dead grandmothers; and even people who don't have computers for allegedly pirating music) isn't going to be paid royalties for her music from now on.
The bad news? Live Nation is a spin off of Clear Channel. D'oh!
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Kazaa Mom Will Appeal RIAA Verdict; Taking Donations

In an appearance on CNN along with her attorney Brian Toder, Jammie Thomas announced her decision to appeal last week's $222,000 willful copyright infringement verdict. The basis of her appeal will be jury instruction no. 15, which told the jurors that they could find Thomas liable for copyright infringement if she made the recordings available over a file-sharing network, "regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown." According to a post on Thomas' MySpace page, the appeal will center around the "making available" argument. The hope is that the RIAA "would actually have to prove a file was shared and by someone other than (themselves.)"
A video of Jammie talking about her appeal is playable below. If you want to donate toward her legal fund, click here.

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RIAA Verdict: Mom, Pay $220,000 For Using Kazaa

After less than four hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Duluth, Minnesota handed the RIAA a victory in the first file-sharing case to go to trial, finding that Jammie Thomas, a 30 year old mother of two, willfully infringed on the record labels' copyrights, awarding them $222,000 in damages.
This was notable because it is the first of the RIAA lawsuits to go to trial. Of course, they'll never see that money. She will likely file bankruptcy and at best they will garnish her wages for the rest of her life.

The RIAA hopes that this and the 20,000 other cases serve as a deterrent to would-be file-sharers, but the question of whether or not the music industry is engendering so much hostility and bad press with its campaign that it outweighs any short-term benefits remains. With a verdict in their favor, the RIAA hopes to ratchet the campaign of fear up a notch and says it will press forward with its legal campaign.

This will no doubt bolster the RIAA's shotgun lawsuit campaign.
Whatever happens, if you share music online, it is evident that the RIAA is watching you.
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RIAA Has Hat Handed to Them in Court

RIAA member Capitol Records to pay legal fees for the first time - ever. $68,685.23. This is the first time any defendant was ever awarded attorney fees against an RIAA member.

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