Law professor fires back at song-swapping lawsuits

[lgh529]

Original Article Here

the interesting part:

"...Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets a private group - the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA - carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law. He also says the music industry group abused the legal process by brandishing the prospects of lengthy and costly lawsuits in an effort to intimidate people into settling cases out of court."

Interesting take on things.

[yoda313]

Too bad he's only four years too late to make any headway in an opposition stance....

THough the best thing is even with drm nuttyness at least itunes and zune and the lot are starting to sell actual MP3 files instead of drm laced aac or wma files. THat is progress at least to get a legally purchased mp3 that you can play on any player. That should go a long way to improving customer relations.

The only thing now is to get drm free video from stores and we are good to go

[Des]

This was a valid argument, up until the recent creation of a
Cabinet-level intellectual property law-enforcement czar

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95702932

--dES

[Evil Monkey]

Lofgren said the bill will "divert resources from the drug cartels and organized crime and mortgage fraud and investigating the pirates on Wall Street to do copyright enforcement."

According to the Center for Public Integrity, the entertainment industry is the 11th largest campaign contributor in the U.S; last year, it threw some $20 million into lobbying Congress. Sohn says that's how legislators managed to pass the pro-IP bill when they couldn't agree on a bailout package.

Nice.

[olyteddy]

"...11th largest campaign contributor in the U.S; last year, it threw some $20 million into lobbying Congress..."
That much power for a mere $20 million!!!

[Evil Monkey]

"...11th largest campaign contributor in the U.S; last year, it threw some $20 million into lobbying Congress..."
That much power for a mere $20 million!!!

Well we are in a Recession.