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RIAA contractors accused of illegal investigation in New York

5 February 2008 23:20 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 9 comments

Yet another defendant in a RIAA file sharing lawsuit has decided to fight back. On behalf of his client Rolando Armurao, who is accused of illegally distribution of more than 500 songs using Limewire P2P software, Richard Altman filed a brief with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York asking that all evidence collected by representatives of Media Sentry be thrown out of court due to the lack of a private investigator's license.

"Plaintiffs proceed in these copyright infringement cases based upon evidence of file-sharing or distribution derived from investigations conducted by Safenet, Inc., a private company operating under the name of Media Sentry," Altman's motion stated. Media Sentry is paid by record labels to find file sharers violating music industry copyrights and get enough information for RIAA lawyers to initiate court cases.

Altman told Computerworld that New York state law there are only a few circumstances where such evidence gathering doesn't require a license, and that the RIAA cases don't fall into the category of an exception. "This is a private company. So I've asked their evidence be excluded," he said

Although others have made similar claims about illegal, or at least questionable, RIAA investigatory practices in the past, to date these claims haven't been argued in the courtroom, with some settled out of court and at least one case, which the Oregon State Attorney General has gotten personally involved in, still pending.

Permalink to this article | Topics: Lawsuits & Legislation MP3 & Digital Audio

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Limewire Store beta launches (17 March 2008)

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Oregon Attorney General comes out swinging in RIAA case (1 December 2007)

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FSF creates fund to provide tech expertise to fight RIAA (19 November 2007)

Oregon Attorney General takes on RIAA over subpoena (6 November 2007)

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Discuss this article!
nobrainer (Inactive) 6 February 2008 3:36
when the maffia tells the government what to do, and gets laws like the "DMCA" and bills introduced into the "Spy Act" to protect their DRM you know they are above the law. The RIAA/MPAA are not accountable in the US. The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above! The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX. How do you stop anti consumer = its easy purchase only second hand media and avoid their propertarian hobbled by DRM hardware! http://www.boycott-riaa.com/ [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6 February 2008 4:21
cousinkix (Newbie) 6 February 2008 7:59
This mafia commission also owns the big US corporate media networks; so don't ever expect to hear objective reporting. Their illegal activites is not newsworthy either. Their political coverage stinks too. They avoid covering anybody, who is not one of their hos... ABC = Disney NBC = Universal CBS = SONY CNN = Time Warner FOX = 20th Century Fox studios [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6 February 2008 8:00
7thsinger (Senior Member) 6 February 2008 8:55
*Quote:* Although others have made similar claims about illegal, or at least questionable, RIAA investigatory practices in the past That's putting it lightly. It's disgusting to see how the RIAA is able to put whatever practices they feel neccessary, no matter the level of personal infringement, into play to gather "evidence" for their suits. [ + quote]
vurbal (Staff Member) 6 February 2008 23:43
*Originally posted by cousinkix:* This mafia commission also owns the big US corporate media networks; so don't ever expect to hear objective reporting. Their illegal activites is not newsworthy either. Their political coverage stinks too. They avoid covering anybody, who is not one of their hos... ABC = Disney NBC = Universal CBS = SONY CNN = Time Warner FOX = 20th Century Fox studios Sony doesn't own CBS Television. They own what used to be CBS Records (Sony BMG Entertainment), which is an entirely different thing. CBS was at one point owned by Viacom, the company which also owns Paramount. A couple of years ago, Viacom and CBS split, with the new CBS Paramount Television including the TV network and television production assets. In other words they're not owned by Sony or any other company that owns a major music label. [ + quote]
varnull (Senior Member) 7 February 2008 1:00
It's not just these american gangsters either... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment...icle3315194.ece Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work.... Commercial "pay for" software = made by software developers who want paying... see where I'm going with this? [ + quote]
ChiefBrdy (Junior Member) 9 February 2008 11:05
Hey RIAA! Looks like your strong-arm tactics aren't working so good anymore. You really need to go back to terroizing 8 year olds and grandmothers. Less resistance that way. Even better, you might start looking at disabled veterans, espcially the ones with mental disorders. They may not have the capacity to fight back. I hope you all die from cancer, you low life scumbags! [ + quote]
kubapolak (Junior Member) 11 February 2008 21:09
That's about time somebody with some extra $$$ fought back, it is going to get expensive or it will die out. But I do like the strong comments on the RIAA, and how they go about doing business. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 2 March 2008 7:03
Hi Ho Hi Ho off to the silly season we go :) [ + quote]
Mez (Senior Member) 26 March 2008 14:34
They are now down to 500+ songs shared! Not too long ago they were at 2000+. I think their tactics are working all too well. Maybe they have decided to become more random with their attacks. With 50 million users in just the US they can't all be even marginally smart. [ + quote]