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Woman accuses RIAA of illegal investigatory practices

5 July 2007 2:41 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 10 comments

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suffering more accusations of illegal practices in its hunt for music file sharers in the United States. Ms. Crain, the defendant in an 8-month-old P2P lawsuit, had claimed she never heard of file sharing until the RIAA demanded a $4,500 settlement. Armed with a lawyer, Crain filed a counterclaim against the RIAA in the Sony vs. Crain case, filed in Texas.

Ms. Crain's attorney has now filed a motion to amend the counterclaim to add new allegations against the recording industry trade group and its partners. The documents claim that Crain "has become aware upon information and belief that the RIAA have illegally employed unlicensed investigators in the State of Texas and used the information thereby obtained to file this and other similar actions across the country."

Texas state law says that investigations companies must be licensed in order to collect evidence that can be used in court; a requirement that Crain says MediaSentry, the RIAA's investigations partner, was fully aware of in Texas and several other states but chose to ignore it. "The RIAA and MediaSentry agreed between themselves and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign," the motion reads.

Crain's attorney claims that the actions constitute "civil conspiracy" under Texas law.

Source:
Ars Technica

Permalink to this article

RIAA gets a chance to prove their case before a jury (28 September 2007)

Defendent argues "making files available" isn't infringement (20 August 2007)

Free radio may become a thing of the past (5 July 2007)

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Unfocused (Member) 5 July 2007 6:27
Good. At least progress is being made with this. Slowly, but every little bit helps. If this goes well, this may be the end of the RIAA and MPAA as we know it. Just think of all those refund checks they will have to shell out. [ + quote]
spydah (Junior Member) 5 July 2007 8:47
Lady get em. Beat em like they drunk all the kool aid and only left a swallow in a big jug. This should be good if all holds well and they dont try and settle this before it gets out of hand. [ + quote]
Gradical (Junior Member) 5 July 2007 8:53
I�ve got a cool idea to bust RIAA and MPAA nuts, and also to make their lifes living hell, all you need is a hacker, that makes a virus, which infects the computers, once security is breached the virus will download emule, limewire or whatever, then run it in stealth mode, and make the desktop as an incoming folder and start downloading a list of the top100 songs in america to the desktop, i bet you that would upset them as well anyone could say they were infected with that infamous virus wich is all ove CNN hahahahahha [ + quote]
bigAl57 (Newbie) 5 July 2007 12:47
This is what RIAA Needs, people fighting back. Go for it! [ + quote]
WierdName (Senior Member) 5 July 2007 16:32
Sue their butts off! Its time they realize they aren't above the law and that they can't just go accusing everyone! [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 5 July 2007 16:48
Quote: Texas state law says that investigations companies must be licensed in order to collect evidence that can be used in court; a requirement that Crain says MediaSentry, the RIAA's investigations partner, was fully aware of in Texas and several other states but chose to ignore it. If this is the case then the RIAA has a battle on their hands and what is it with them and attacking women. Come on go for the real criminals doing the true crimes and not the average user. [ + quote]
hughjars (Inactive) 5 July 2007 16:52
More power to her. It's about time 'the people' were protected under the law instead of allowing the corporations & the powerful to use it to f*ck 'the people' whenever they felt like it. [ + quote]
spydah (Junior Member) 5 July 2007 20:09
I hope this ladies lawyer is one of the best because if this all goes right i hope he or she his them Mofo's so hard they cant recover. [ + quote]
nintenut (Senior Member) 6 July 2007 9:54
Originally posted by Gradical: I�ve got a cool idea to bust RIAA and MPAA nuts, and also to make their lifes living hell, all you need is a hacker, that makes a virus, which infects the computers, once security is breached the virus will download emule, limewire or whatever, then run it in stealth mode, and make the desktop as an incoming folder and start downloading a list of the top100 songs in america to the desktop, i bet you that would upset them as well anyone could say they were infected with that infamous virus wich is all ove CNN hahahahahha As if we never tried that before... We did temporarily crash that Miivi site though... [ + quote]
signal (Junior Member) 7 July 2007 0:50
Cool fact about Texas. It is still legal to hang people...Just a though dinging around in my head... Gradical, interesting statment, but i recommend finding the guys who hacked ebay and yahoo a few years back! Oh wait, who were they again? I like your thinking though. If the MPAA and RIAA have come this far with out taking heavy hits, I'm sure they have pretty good security. (Oh yeah, I;m not bashing you, I just say what I think). Never go to war with out your gear!!! Ah crap....where did i put my spear..... Later, The Unknown... [ + quote]