Posted on February 3, 2008 - by Venik

RIAA Offers to Self-Incriminate

An interesting timeline of the RIAA crusade against its customers has been published by P2PNet. In the face of continuing decline in music sales, RIAA and its members persist with their worn-out business models. RIAA excretes thousands of lawsuits against college students and senior citizens, war veterans and single mothers, teenagers and their grandparents – all accused of copyright violations they did not commit. High school students are being served subpoenas in classrooms and RIAA opened a Web site where it compels people to incriminate themselves and pay a hefty fine as a way of avoiding a lawsuit.

The vast majority of these accusations are groundless and frivolous. With proper legal defense, virtually all of these lawsuits would result in victory for the defendant. The question is: can you afford the fight? Fighting RIAA in court requires time and money. The matter of online music-downloading is very technical in nature, so hiring just any defense attorney is not good enough.

The “evidence” RIAA collects against its victims, by spying on them and bullying their ISP into revealing private information, is generally insufficient to prove their guilt in court. However, the technical side of the argument is obfuscated enough that RIAA’s attorneys and expert witnesses can bamboozle just about any judge or jury. With proper defense, however, even the guilty can beat RIAA, because, technically speaking, what RIAA is trying to prove in court cannot be proven with any evidence that can be legally obtained by RIAA.

It is important to underscore, however, that the vast majority of people being harassed by RIAA are completely innocent. Chances are you are using Windows. Chances are your computer is filled with malicious software even if you have antivirus software installed. You can never be entirely sure who is using your computer. If you have a wireless network, there is a good possibility that your neighbors or roommates are using it without you knowing it.

Whatever improprieties or crimes are committed using your computer or your Internet connection; they will be linked to your IP address. It is virtually guaranteed that you can prove that you didn’t do it. Doing so, however, requires considerable resources because of the technical nature of your argument. A lawyer, who, like yourself, knows little about computer security, will not be able to effectively defend you. On the other hand, a lawyer who is experienced in this type of cases will cost you a pretty penny and so will the expert witnesses you will need to hire.

The best way to resist RIAA and its corporate members is not to buy the product they are peddling. If you are buying music, make sure you are not buying it from any of the “Big Four” RIAA members. Believe me, there is plenty good music out there not produced by these extortionists.

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