Lawyers Plot Class Action Against RIAA Over P2P Lawsuits

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 12:27pm.

Los Angeles - Two attorneys who have represented a number of alleged file-swappers in copyright infringement lawsuits brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) plan to file a class action suit against the RIAA this summer, to reclaim the "$100 million" the RIAA "stole" from the thousands of people they have sued, Ars Technica reports. Harvard Law professor Charles Neeson is currently defending a Boston student in a file-sharing case, while former Neeson student Kiwi Camara will represent Jammie Thomas-Rasset in her retrial on charges of copyright infringement on a file-sharing network.

According to Ars, the two plan to argue that MediaSentry, a firm hired by the RIAA to collect evidence on IP addresses and song sharing, is not licensed as a private investigator.

They will also dispute the copyrights on the songs in question submitted by the RIAA, as they have not been the "certified copies" required under federal rules of evidence.

Neeson and Camara will also argue that the large sums awarded to the labels as a result of noncommercial copyright infringement are unconstitutional, and most controversially, that file-sharing should be considered a "fair use" of copyrighted content.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/jv5kd (Ars Technica)