Lawyer Claims RIAA Suits Were Unconstitutional, Wants Settlement Money Re-Distributed
If you’re going to go after the RIAA, you might as well go all-out; at least, that’s the apparent philosophy of Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, who is not only seeking to argue that file-sharing is fair use, but that the fines exacted from convicted file-sharers are essentially unconstitutional. If all goes according to his plan, the RIAA’s litigation campaign will be deemed unlawful and they will be forced to return the $100 million they’ve collected in settlements.
A pretty extreme strategy, to be sure. Not even Lawrence Lessig, vocal proponent of relaxed intellectual property laws, creative remixing, and mashups, among other things, supports the idea that file-sharing is actually fair use. Still, it’s a legal theory worth discussing, and perhaps it will spur more reasonable amendments to copyright law.
Lawyer: RIAA must pay back all $100M it has collected [Ars Technica]
(thanks to Brad Burr for the tip)
Tags: copyright law, Litigation, RIAA
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on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Industry news.
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France to Punish Pirates With Internet Cutoff
The French National Assembly today passed legislation that sets up a “three strikes” system for those who pirate movies and music online. First time offenders will receive a warning via email. If they continue illicit downloading (or perhaps uploading - the original article doesn’t specify) they’ll get another warning through snail mail. After a third and final infraction, their internet access will be shut down for a year.
The technical details of this bill were not immediately clear, such as whether offenders’ home internet would be shut down or whether they would be somehow ‘blacklisted’ by multiple ISPs and access points. However, compared to the fines in the United States, this is a much more reasonable punishment that is in line with what the RIAA has promised to do in the future.
What do you think? Is it tough enough, too harsh, or not much of a deterrent?
France adopts tough internet bill [Straits Times]
Tags: copyright law, Piracy
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on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Industry news.
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