Comments on: Judge postpones hearing in key RIAA lawsuit

Record labels face what may be their most daunting adversary so far: a group of Harvard law students and their instructor who claim the file-sharing lawsuits are unconstitutional.

[Chapmaniac]

Right on!

[sharmajunior]

Yeah!!!!! F*** the RIAA

[HlLLARY CLITON]

The Nazi RIAA

[karpenterskids]

UGHHHH...those RIAA people make my blood boil.

"Oh, we DESERVE to sue these million for thousands and thousands of dollars---lots of people pirate our music all the time!"

That's in NO WAY a reason to take it out on the people caught: what if real thieves were punished for all the crimes that HAVEN'T been caught? That's not how it should work AT ALL.

And the RIAA keeps bringing more and more people through their money-making machine...so ideally, the fees to cover "all those other crimes" should be decreasing as well...but guess what? Surprise, surprise...it's NOT.

[Lerianis]

Exactly right with that analogy you made. The fact is that is EXACTLY what the RIAA and MPAA are trying to do: punish the few people they DO catch for the supposed 'wrongdoings' of the majority. Guess what? If the majority doesn't think that swapping music is 'bad' and 'wrong'...... any law saying it is flies in the face of public opinion, and therefore is illegal! Thomas Jefferson said that, Ben Franklin said that, so did George Washington!

[PhuQua]

If you don't like the RIAA tactics, stop buying all the songs online or cds from major labels. Buy from independent music producers. Vote with your money instead of your mouth (fingers). I have.

[Penguinisto]

Amen.

[markdoiron]

Me, too. And, I get to listen to music that I pick--rather than some corporation less interested in talent and more interested crazy lifestyles that promote bizarre music. --mark d.

[fdunn3]

The whole DMCA is warped and imbalanced and needs to be revisited.

The DMCA is now used at the drop of a hat and anybody on the defending side is likely to be up against a corporation that has too much money for attorneys while the regular citizen will go broke trying just to start a case.

This is kind of like playing poker where you have $25 of chips and the other player has $10,000 of chips. All they have to do is rasie the stakes over your $25.

It is an inequity that the DMCA and the legislators that made it law did not count on.

In essence, if you don't plead guilty (even if you aren't) they will financially bankrupt you.

[byl01]

What do you mean, "did not count on"?
That's exactly what the legislators and their RIAA owners counted on in the first place.

[Endbringer]

I am so glad that someone is trying to stand up on Constitutional grounds against these people. The purpose of copyright was not to grant money, it was to make sure the artist got his/her recognition for the work. Jefferson never intended nor expected a corporation to own a copyright for longer than a person's normal lifetime. All of this stems from the SCOTUS in the 1800s saying a company has constitutional protections just like an individual, even though it's not in the Constitution itself nor any other documents. If the founders wanted that, they would have mentioned people as well as business. Anyway, copyright was not intended to do what the corporations have done with it. Think about it. The Library of Congress was to contain as much as possible of everything as long as the creator got credit for doing it. The founders, especially Jefferson, never intended for the creators to deny access to their work without payment because then the Library of Congress could not have anything in it.

The courts have distorted the original intent of copyright law and now we're facing the consequences of it.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Hey, I'm going to repeat this: PHRACK THE RIAA!!

[shoelaceninja]

i just hate the fact that record companies spend and waste so much money on nothing, then complain that they are going to run out of money to wipe their ***** with, but make it look like the money goes elsewhere, like to hardworking, deserving people that care about everyone and don't sign artists just to get money to wipe their ***** with.

[catnett]

I find it amusing how people rationalize theft and then blame the victim for seeking redress through the courts. It's really simple - if you don't want to get sued by the record companies, don't steal music!

[syberlink]

Directv and the RIAA have sued many they knew were innocent. Where people were innocent, the suits were a fraud. Law enforcement should have stepped in to stop innocent people from being sued. Those innocent people need to do what Justice did. Law enforcement ignored justice in these suits. People need to ignore justice the next time they are a juror or a witness. Jury nullification will ignore Justice the next time.