Rich Fiscus
30 Jul 2007 16:19
After Nicholas Paternoster, a sergeant in the US Army, filed a counterclaim against the RIAA regarding an investigation which lead to a copyright infringement suit against him, the organization's attorneys asked the judge to strike an exhibit from the court record.
The exhibit consisted of a list of shared files allegedly found on his computer. It included over 4,000 files not mentioned in the RIAA suit. Sgt. Paternoster's counterclaim alleges that the RIAA violated his privacy and tried to shame him into giving into their "unreasonable demands regarding their copyrighted materials."
The labels then asked the judge to strike the original exhibit from the record as a "professional courtesy" to Paternoster and his attorneys. The judge approved the request and the original exhibit was removed from the public record on July 26.
his is not the first time the RIAA has been caught using questionable tactics. After Oregon resident Tanya Andersen, who was mistakenly accused of copyright infringement by the record labels, was exonerated, she sued the RIAA for malicious prosecution. In her complaint, she accused the record labels of trying to contact her then eight-year-old daughter without her knowledge, even calling her elementary school under false pretenses.
Source: Ars Technica