[Macworld.com]

After using ham-handed tactics to go after people it thinks are pirating digital music, the RIAA is getting a taste of its own medicine. [more]

[Grapho]

This is almost like placing the entire police department of a giving city in pursue jaywalkers. Sure they are braking the law, but it would be a waste of man power and the benefit would be minimal. RIAA has certainly become desperate. It kind of reminds me of Microsoft going after the Linux end users as far as the desperation thing.

[scotts13]

Thus once again proving that, in most cases, it isn't the actual merits of the case but the cost of the litigation that decides the day. In most of the civilized world, the loser pays all legal costs in a civil case - automatically (or so I understand).
Until we have that in the US, I fantasize some outrageously wealthy person setting up a fund to defend people in cases like this. THEN let companies threaten to "ruin people financially" if they don't knuckle under.
Oh, and if it isn't a major crime to impersonate a relative to contact or get information on a child - it should be. This puts the RIAA at a level with pedophiles and kidnappers. Despicable.

[Netizen_Kane]

Yes! Nail these bastards for emotional distress and defamation of character. About $5 million in punitive damages sounds about right to me.

[ante_em]

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Oh, and if it isn't a major crime to impersonate a relative to contact or get information on a child - it should be. This puts the RIAA at a level with pedophiles and kidnappers. Despicable.

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I could not agree more with the above statement. Surely if it is not expressly illegal, the harassment it comprises is.
And the really ridiculous thing that gets me (after the indignation we should all feel that they would think this is in any way justifiable or permissible behavior) is that, just like the motion picture industry watchdogs, if these companies rep'd by RIAA would put any effort themselves into making more compelling products, developing better distribution systems (instead of leaving it to maverick third parties like Apple to create), justly compensating their affiliated artists and behaving like halfway responsible corporate citizens... the public wouldn't be nearly so willing to thumb their collective noses at their copyrights in the first place.
These are just bullying punks who wear suits--and they deserve every bad thing now coming their way. Keep PUSHING till it breaks, Ms. Anderson!

[OM_user]

Holy cow! How is the RIAA any different than organized crime units in how they operate? Just because they are an "official" organization doesn't mean they should be allowed to use such extortion and bullying tactics. Honestly, they really believe they are above the law and that the end justifies the means.
These bullying punks shouldn't just be forced to pay the legal fees, they should be locked away for a few years, with a guy named Bubba as their new best friend. Right now the legal system gives the RIAA and their hired goons no reason to fear anything about the tactics they use, and that has to change pronto!
And yes, this utterly reeks of the desperation we all know the music industry is in. Really disgusting how low they are.

[j_drake]

/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif It's a good thing Andersen had the guts, tenacity and a good lawyer to run the RIAA off. At the same time it is a shame, as you noted that the RIAA felt the need to stoop to such tactics, surely at some point, and I mean before the counter-suit, someone in their inner circle had to realize their actions were just plain wrong-headed, I mean pretending to be the grandmother! As someone else has posted here that should be illegal if it is not already, and if it is then the RIAA goons that tried it should be charged and prosecuted!
I for one believe that illegal downloads hurt the artist, not sure how to solve that issue other than to have the artist sell their wares directly on the net, by-passing the agents, record labels and especially the RIAA.
This single case will hurt their cause tremendously, leaving the real pirates in Europe and Asia that are putting out the black market CDs and DVDs by the thousands to keep draining hundreds of millions of dollars/rubles/pesos/euros etc from the industry and that has gotta be pi$$ing off a lot of their clients. One has to wonder then, if when the RIAA collects any of the money from the folks they take to court does the artist they are supposedly protecting (we all know it's actually the labels that are being "protected") get any of that. I tend to doubt it. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

[folklore]

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This is almost like placing the entire police department of a giving city in pursue jaywalkers.

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One jaywalker isn't that much of a problem. But what if every street were clogged with jaywalkers, preventing regular vehicular traffic, I'm sure the police would reallocate resources to the interagency anti-jaywalking task force.
The RIAA sees casual piracy as the streets being clogged with jaywalkers: It's a problem, and something's gotta change.
If the criminal justice system isn't going to pursue casual pirates, why shouldn't the RIAA do it themselves in civil court?
Granted, some of the tactics described are extreme and shouldn't be in the playbook. But what about the larger issue of suing music thieves?
I haven't yet heard a good argument for not suing music thieves. Sure, sure, you can say that the RIAA is suing its own customers - but try extending that logic to not prosecuting shoplifters. It just doesn't hold up.

[Axl]

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But what if every street were clogged with jaywalkers, preventing regular vehicular traffic, I'm sure the police would reallocate resources to the interagency anti-jaywalking task force.

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Yeah - lets do it! Lets all become criminal jaywalkers and go crazy! Let's.... dare I say it... CROSS THE ROAD! en masse and cause havoc!
OK, maybe not - we'd be slowing down all the SUV's (perish the thought) and besides, the anti-jaywalking task force would be terrorizing our children forever more.
Seriously, I am so glad this happened. All power to Tanya Andersen.

[macwilf]

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Granted, some of the tactics described are extreme and shouldn't be in the playbook.

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Well, that is to put it very benignly, I'd say. Some of the tactics used by them, is breaking the law, I should say and what is the use of trying to pursue others who break the law if you do it yourself?

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But what about the larger issue of suing music thieves?
I haven't yet heard a good argument for not suing music thieves. Sure, sure, you can say that the RIAA is suing its own customers - but try extending that logic to not prosecuting shoplifters. It just doesn't hold up.

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If the streets are filled with jaywalkers, it will probably turn the society into a police state to try to stop them. There are probably lots of good arguments against jaywalking and I am afraid that is the only road we can go in such cases; by arguing our case. It might be in vain, but it is also in vain to try to enforce a law which the majority think is wrong. At least judged by the actions of the same majority who are filling the streets, jaywalking.
I don't think one can completely put an end to jaywalking and the same goes for illegally downloading, but I think one can convince a lot of those doing it, by having good arguments why one should not do it.
One is to support the artists. But, on the other hand, when one knows that the record companies do their best to exploit the same artists for all what they're worth, perhaps the same companies aren't the right ones to preach?
All in all, it is a quite complicated issue, methinks. One can try to simplify it, in the name of moral and ethics, for instance, but that won't resolve it, I am afraid. We need even better arguments than that.

[macwilf]

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OK, maybe not - we'd be slowing down all the SUV's (perish the thought) and besides, the anti-jaywalking task force would be terrorizing our children forever more.

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You just presented a good argument for jaywalking en masse /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Who decides that the streets should be for the cars? Is that to the benefit of us all?
See? Not easy;)

[folklore]

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the record companies do their best to exploit the same artists for all what they're worth, perhaps the same companies aren't the right ones to preach?

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I'm tired of this particular argument. Of course record companies exploit artists for all they're worth. Artists exploit record companies for all they are worth. My professor exploits me for all I'm worth (I'm a grad student), and when I was in the private sector, every employer I ever had exploited me for all I was worth. In turn, I exploited them for all they're worth.
That's what capitalism is. It is not an excuse to steal from record companies.

[doglesby]

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One jaywalker isn't that much of a problem. But what if every street were clogged with jaywalkers, preventing regular vehicular traffic

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I'm sure police wouldn't roam the sidewalks arresting random pedestrians. The RIAA should not relentlessly pursue innocent individuals. If everyone it pursued were guilty, there would be much less backlash. This notion that innocent people shouldn't be willing to defend themselves is a perversion of justice. I'd want blood if someone went after my daughter impersonating her grandmother too.

[mmcgann11]

I'm amazing no one has gone after the RIAA using a RICO civil-part suit. (Obviously, our current justice department would die before taking the criminal RICO charges route).
I'm stunned that some deep-pockets group cough-consumer electronics association--cough cough, hasn't funded a class-action RICO suit to shut down the RIAA once and for all. Based on the story here, they are clearly behaving as a criminal enterprise and RICO laws used to take down organized crime would seem to apply here.