A teenager whose mother and sister have been separately targeted by the RIAA in lawsuits is fighting back against their lawsuit against himself.  The boy is sixteen years old and accused of acts of music piracy when he was 11.  He is counter suing the record industry for collusion.

The RIAA had previously sued the boys mother, who refused to settle becoming somewhat famous in her own right until the suit against her was dropped in December.

Unfortunately for the family the sister of the brother and daughter of the mother did not file paperwork fast enough and is ordered to pay over $30k in a default judgement against her.

Little brother however is fighting back and fighting hard in a counter suit that could set precedents and have an impact around the world. His suit accuses the recording industry acting through the RIAA of violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats.

The boy also claims that he never pirated music and that the record companies can not prove that he did pirate music.  He and his attorney also claim that the statute of limitations has passed and that all of the alleged music downloaded was actually owned by his sister on store bought CDs, which would insinuate that the recording industry sued one of its few paying customers and won a judgement against a paying customer for $30+k.  That’s sure to win them some customer loyalty!

The boys lawyer Robert Santangelo claims that the record companies have filed more than 18,000 piracy lawsuits in federal courts in a ‘conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United States.’  If he were to win against the record industry that victory might make for one of the most ironic class action lawsuit formations in history.

Technorati tags: boy sues record industry, record industry collusion allegations, antitrust, piracy lawsuits, RIAA sues paying customers and wins

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Oh Canada! 

Canadians according to Canadian law might be one of the largest groups of pirates that history has ever seen if we exclude online music piracy.  Snagging free MP3 files garnishes a great deal of attention, but were you aware that almost a million Canadians or better are stealing Satellite signals not sanctioned by the Canadian government?

That’s right Canadians are picking up signals that include everything from Dish Network to XM Satellite radio wherever they can get it.  Funny thing is these Pirates are not stealing from the satellite company, they are paying for the content!  They set up illegal ‘offshore’ accounts in the US to pay their cable bills. 

Technically its on the same shore but from a legal jurisdiction perspective a Sovereign nation can be viewed as offshore, in fact some states within the US even offer Offshore banking to citizens of other states in the US.  Caribbean climates don’t often come to mind when we think about offshore banking in Montana or Nevada but that is the way it is.

The services do not necessarily mind and the equipment dealers and distributors make a fortune from the practice as US satellite receivers of both cable TV and radio can command double the price seen in the US as its smuggled into Canada and sold on the black market.

Up until recently the service considered the Canadian consumers as more of a smuggler than a pirate and turned a blind eye mostly to the activity.  But recent crack downs of forces from both the government and the cable companies are making some Canadians see red or more precisely static as their cable connection is removed.

Now many Canadians are beginning to demand their satellite rights to American shows.  Canada despite the North American Free Trade Agreement has a very long history of protectionism within its broadcast industry.  Protected markets however cannot always survive market forces and taking away someone’s cable, well those are fighting words where I come from.  Let’s hope Canada does not break down into the quagmire of civil war over this very important and difficult issue.

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The Wall Street Journal ran a nonchalant 6 sentence article(B5) about copyright claims filed against the Google Video Service today on 11-9-06.  The Claims were disclosed by Google in its recent quarterly report filed the day before.

Certain entities have also filed copyright claims against us, alleging that features of certain of our products, including Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, and Google Book Search, infringe their rights. In addition, our planned acquisition of YouTube may also subject us to additional copyright claims upon the closing of the transaction. Adverse results in these lawsuits may include awards of damages and may also result in, or even compel, a change in our business practices, which could result in a loss of revenue for us or otherwise harm our business.

Google not being a company about disclosing any more than necessary remained true to their tactics and did not reveal the source of the claims.

Speculation

This raises the specter that the YouTube purchase will be a large target for additional claims.  Google is no stranger to copyright claims and has fought them on almost every major service they have offered from Web Search to Google news to books and images.

Additional story were some what delayed(showed up several hours after the WSJ hit the streets) in catching on but they did catch on and speculation has questioned whether Google has established a ‘$500 million YouTube defense fund‘ which was promptly rejected by Google’s Chief Executive.

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The RIAA is going after one of its largest paying customers, XM Radio. The RIAA claims that XM’s new product under the Inno name is too much like an MP3 player or an MP3 recorder and therefore is not covered under XM’s current arrangement whereby XM pays to broadcast music. The music industry wanted XM to pay a similar rate such as is imposed on Apple and Sirius (XM’s largest competitor) for the download of music in addition to the broadcast. XM feels that the recording industry is trying to double charge its customers, who pay $12.95 per month and under XM’s vision would not have to pay for a download.

“The lawsuit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM Satellite customers using the devices, which went on sale weeks ago. The company said it played 160,000 different songs every month.” This quote out of the New York Times is slightly out of context as XM does state that it broadcasts 160,000 songs each month, but does not say how many songs are being recorded onto these devices.

XM has apparently ruffled some feathers with one of its most important partners, the RIAA. XM had attempted to play nice with the RIAA, this lawsuit seems to indicate a severe breakdown between the partners. Maven Mapper’s next line of inquiry will be to review XM’s financials and compare them to Sirius who by recent accounts has agreed to pay the RIAA the fees they seek.

Its curious that Sirius has accepted this and XM has fought it now all the way to court.

Recording Industry Sues XM Satellite Radio - New York Times

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The uproar today out of Washington comes from the revelation that the NSA has been collecting phone records of every day Americans since shortly after September 11th without anyone’s public knowledge as the event has been highly classified.

ABC Channel 7 in Chicago describes the information provided with the following analogy, “That printout of your phone calls that many Chicago area consumers get each month is the same one that also goes to the government in a database that has charted hundreds of millions of calls. ”

The NSA appears to be working under a potential legal loophole. A court order would be required to allow the NSA to listen to the actual phone conversation, however a court order is not required for them to request phone records.

Reports describe Billions of phone records turned over to the government for “tens of millions” of customers in some reports and “over 200 million” customers in other reports. These are domestic phone bills of US Citizens and businesses.
ABC7Chicago.com: NSA collection of billions of phone records sparks uproar

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