RIAA Appeals Award of Attorneys' Fees

Fishing Expedition writes in with a story in Ars reporting that the RIAA has decided to appeal a judge's decision to award attorneys' fees to defendant Debbie Foster in Capitol Records v. Foster. If the award stands, the RIAA could find itself in trouble in numerous other cases, and they know it. Their real fear, more than the attorneys' fees, is the judge's finding that the RIAA's arguments for contributory and vicarious infringement claims in cases like this one are not viable.

seeing the light

[gEvil (beta)]

Their real fear, more than the attorneys' fees, is the judge's finding that the RIAA's arguments for contributory and vicarious infringement claims in cases like this one are not viable.

Well, when you put it like that I really hope the judge sees the light and overturns the previous ruling...

Yashoor, yoobetcha!

[spun]

I'm glad to see that the RIAA/MPAA's War on Customers is failing, and IANAL, but that article summary is terrible. Can you possibly make it any more confusing?

Feeshing Ixpedeeshun vreetes in veet a stury in Ers repurteeng thet zee RIEA hes deceeded tu eppeel a joodge's deceesiun tu everd etturneys' fees tu deffendunt Debbeee-a Fuster in Cepeetul Recurds f. Fuster. Iff zee everd stunds, zee RIEA cuoold feend itselff in truooble-a in noomeruoos oozeer ceses, und zeey knoo it. Zeeur reel feer, mure-a thun zee etturneys' fees, is zee joodge's feending thet zee RIEE's ergooments fur cuntreebootury und feeceriuoos inffreengement cleeems in ceses leeke-a thees oone-a ere-a nut feeeble-a. Bork Bork Bork!

won't someone think of the industry?

[teh_chrizzle]

all they want to do is ruin people's lives! is that so wrong?

Re:time for business model change?

[Lord_Ultimate]

What, you mean try to make money by selling CDs? But that would involve having artists put out CDs that don't suck. To do that you need talented artists. And you have to search for them, audition them, etc. That just takes too much time and effort.

Besides, war-dialing for people to sue seems like it would be much more fun.

Headlines from the future

[Banzai042]

June 1: Judge rules against RIAA in legal fee case June 2: Judge sued for illegal filesharing by RIAA

Re:seeing the light

[Maxo-Texas]

However you spell it, all your bases are belong to us.. us.

Go Zig, For Justice!

Re:seeing the light

[Anonymous Coward]

What I want to know is why the blurb includes that line. Is there documented evidence of that being their "fear"? It seems more like an opinion that has no bases in fact.

Um... you have a four digit UID. Did you log on to slashdot in 1998, think it sucked, and recently found it again?

I mean, ordinarily I'd say "you must be new here"

(Mind Reading Capcha says "tribute")

Re:Why do we have to put up with this crap?

[StarvingSE]

public void RIAA_court_case(Plaintiff pliantiff, Defendant defendant) {

    if (judge.decision().winner == defendant && case.frivolous)
    {
        defendant.bankbalance += plaintiff.getmoney(defendant.fees);
    ) else {
        defendant.bankbalance -= defendant.fees;
        plaintiff.bankbalance -= plaintiff.fees;
    }
}

i love pseudocode
   

"Reasonable attorney fees"...

[fudgefactor7]

...as determined by whom? Previously, the RIAA did things like sue for $150K per song. Now assuming each song is 10 minutes long (and we know that won't be true, but it works for the math), there would be 6 such songs in one hour; or $150K x 6 = $900K per hour. So, if her defending team worked, say, 100 hours on the suit (not unheard of), then the RIAA would be forced to pay legal fees of $900K x 100 = $90,000,000.00
 
What's reasonable for the goose must be reasonable for the gander, right?

Re:Why do we have to put up with this crap?

[Q-Cat5]

PCC (PseudoCode Compiler) output--
Compiler error: plaintiff does not exist in this context.

Did you mean pliantiff?

Compilers: the ultimate dictionary flamers.

Re:seeing the light

[Q-Cat5]

Am I the only one waiting for an "All your bases" joke?

Good.

Re:Poor arguments!

[Anonymous Coward]

Trance: So, the bomb kills the Cetus and let's the Andromeda go free, and we save the planet and the Andromeda.

Dylan: That's right. I call it my eat your cake and have it too plan.

Trance: Uhh, isn't it have your cake and eat it too?

Dylan: Trance, we're working on a bomb that could destroy a small planet, and you're quibbling over semantics? Anyone can have their cake and eat it, the real trick is eating your cake and still having it.

Trance: I see.

Dylan: It's a common mistake.

Re:$5,000 an hour? Hardly.

[cpt kangarooski]

No court would award fees of $5,000 per hour in a copyright case, even if the winning party actually paid that much. The law provides for a "reasonable" attorney fee, and that isn't reasonable.

Shut the hell up. As a copyright lawyer, I think that fee is entirely reasonable. Perhaps even too reasonable.

Re:No Precedent Here

[cpt kangarooski]

I'd like to hear what a real lawyer thinks.

Okay, if that's what you want. Right now I'm thinking that it's a pain in the ass to graduate to the 'hard' level on Guitar Hero II. I'm having trouble getting used to moving my hand up and down the neck of the controller so that I can use the orange fret.