More RIAA (insert colorful metaphor here)

Reading this article on p2pnet this morning (thank you Ray Beckerman).

The thugs at the RIAA went after a 16 year old cheerleader.

Article here; http://www.p2pnet.net/story/44096

Whitney Harper, left, a 16-year-old cheerleader when she was attacked by the Big 4 organised music cartel’s RIAA, was the first victim in a copyright infringement suit to use the ‘innocent infringer’ defense.

She was accused by Warner Music’s Maverick Records of downloading music through Sharman Network’s Kazaa, the disgraced P2P file sharing app that’s been front and centre in the bulk of RIAA Sue ‘Em All lawsuits.

The RIAA was, and is, fronted by Holme Roberts & Owen’s Eve Burton (right).

Several years ago a federal court in Texas ordered the RIAA to either accept $200 per infringed work, or to go to trial over the innocent infringement issue, said Ray Beckerman in Recording Industry vs The People.

Then last month an amicus brief prepared by a group of professors led by Harvard’s Charles Nesson in support of Harper was submitted to the US Supreme Court, said p2pnet.

Now, says the BLT, the court’s unusual action in asking for Big Music input “is a sign of the Court’s interest in the case”.

A “recent study indicated that the Court’s request for a response significantly increases the chances the Court will ultimately grant review — which could turn into a major contest for the music industry”, says the story.

Definitely stay tuned.

Should be interesting, Ray makes the point at his blog recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com that "The 5th Circuit's ruling was ludicrous, and deserves to be unceremoniously reversed. The Supreme Court's request for a response from the RIAA at this juncture suggests that the high court has picked up on the 5th Circuit's flagrant mistake"

This one is worth watching. I can't help but wonder if the high court is starting to question the constitutionality of the money often awarded in these lawsuits.

If You Missed Spotlight Last Sunday...

...then you missed one heck of a show.

Deb from the Unsigned Musicians show was able to join me as co-host this week. It was nice having her back on the show. To kill some time and wait for the regular viewers to start shuffling in we talked about the PETA idiots freaking out because Obama killed a fly instead of trapping it humanely and letting it go free outdoors. Deb offered her opinion on PETA (on top of supporting unsigned artists she is also an animal rights activist) and confirmed everything I ever thought of them. Sorry if you support PETA all I can say is go do some reseach on who they really are. PETA does things that honestly send a shiver down my spine.

Anyway....

We also had SmokingToad on the Skype call. Deb is looking to do another 24 hour show about legalizing Marijuana. Toad was able to offer some input into the Free the Weed issue, along with some folks in chat. It was an interesting conversation and I'll have more information about the show when we figure out when it's gonna be.

Then we talked about the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case, the disqusting judgement that was entered against her ($1.92 million dollars) and what it means to the indie artists and those of us who play independent music on the internet, as well as confirming that the RIAA really isn't a nice group of people. We also talked about ASCAP wanting to charge cell phone companies royaties for ringtones, their argument being that when a phone rings in public it's a public performance of a song. Rediculous isn't it?

Then, the fun surprise of the evening, Pete Berwick showed up in my chatroom while we were talking about all this crap, and offered his own opinion of it, which if anyone knows Pete knows that he has no real love for the "music industry hacks". We were able to have Pete on the show, which was nice, it's always a treat when he's able to stop in.

We closed out the show with a live performance from Jamie Gray. After we talked to Pete, we wanted to show him how easy it is to invite someone to "co-host" come on a show and play. Jamie was in rare form, and played an outstanding set (coincidently if anyones interested, he does have a show on blogtv, Thursday nights at 10 (eastern time) check him out.

Like I said, it was a great show, I know I had a blast!

Getting Back Down to Business

Ok, now that we've gotten the bugs worked out over on blogtv, I'm getting back into actual show planning. Here are some of the things we're going to talk about tomorrow.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset lost her case. Again. This time, this particular jury decided on a worse penalty than the last one. Now she has to pay the RIAA (also known on this page as the music mafia) $1.92 million dollars. Works out to hundreds of thousands of dollars per song.

Hmm, what is the 8th amendment to the constitution? Some crazy thing about excessive fines and penalties?

Ah here it is.....

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Ok, so this isn't excessive? Got it.

Also found something interesting on the EFF's website, ASCAP wants cell phone companies to start paying royalties for ringtones. No, I'm not making this up.

All this and more, tomorrow night at 9 (eastern) over on blogtv!