RIAA and MPAA ask for pretexting exemption

[Raffine]

Speaking of the MPAA, Jack Valenti is dead.

"Jack Valenti was a great American and a great Texan," President Bush said in a statement released by the White House.

[Jordan]

You know, I read about this last week on IMDB.com Andrew and I forgot to post about it here. I've never even heard of the RIAA up until now and this whole "pretext exemption" is ridiculous. "We need to pretend we are someone else in order to catch bootleggers?" Definitely a lame excuse.

Oh and trekgeezer, apparently the RIAA was handed a verdict to halt massive "John Doe" lawsuits, but still persists in handing them out. Oddly enough, the RIAA has not been held in contempt. (Then again, the Supreme Court didn't issue this decision.) Here's a bit about this in the legal blog you posted about:

The courts have recognized and agreed with the severance point, however, noting that it is improper to join the multiple John Does. See, e.g., Fonovisa v. Does 1-41, 04-CA-550 LY (W.D. Texas, Austin Div., 2004). The Fonovisa court ordered the RIAA to cease its practice of joining "John Does". The RIAA, however, has continued the practice. We are not aware of any contempt motions having been made yet.

Since when have the RIAA become powerful enough to shrug off a court decision? I believe that both it and the MPAA are a bit too powerful for their own good....

[Andrew]

I have no grief that Valenti is gone.

Also, here is another story about the RIAA that shows a shocking lack of ethics:

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/04/riaa-goes-into-court-ex-parte-in-denver.html

In general, they made a secret court request for a ruling that they did not require a court order to get ISP customer records.  They ask the ISP for the records, the ISP has to provide them.  This is BS and something expressly denied to the government by the Bill of Rights.  For a company to ask for it is unbearable.

The motion was denied, thankfully, but this is something they never should have had the gall to ask for.

[Dennis]

Just my opinion, but I can't help but think that all these legal shenanigans and law suit crapola, and that's what it is, would disappear almost over night if we got rid of about 90% of the lawyers in this country. They're supposed to be officers of the court, concerned with what is right and true, the reality is that all they really care about is how much money they can steal legally, hence the pay us $3000.00 and we'll drop your name from the lawsuit stuff. I know that there are probably a couple honest lawyers  (hows that for an oxymoron) but most are just out for an easy way to make money.