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Report: RIAA Undergoing Massive Layoffs
By David Kravets EmailFebruary 27, 2009 | 7:49:11 PMCategories: RIAA Litigation

Picture_3_2 The Recording Industry Association of America is firing scores of workers, a "bloodbath" as some have described it.

The recession, and its announced pullback of its 5-year-old litigation campaign, are among the reasons.

Hypebot.com reports dozens of RIAA workers are being let go. The "RIAA as you know it is probably history by Tuesday of next week," the site says. The site predicts the group is likely to merge with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, the RIAA's European counterpart which is part of the ongoing trial against The Pirate Bay in Sweden.

Cara Duckworth, an RIAA spokeswoman, says in an e-mail to Digital Media News that: "Can't confirm number but I can confirm there were layoffs."

The move comes two months after the music industry's litigation and lobbying front announced an end to its 5-year litigation campaign, in which more than 30,000 individuals had been sued for file sharing. The RIAA, which defeated Napster and Grokster in court, said instead of litigation it would work with ISPs to suspend file sharing copyright scofflaws – a plan that has not materialized.

Duckworth did not immediately return e-mails or phone calls for comment.

The Motion Picture Association of America, the film studio's litigation and lobbying arm, announced layoffs weeks ago.
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It was expected.

RIAA Sued for Fraud, Abuse and Legal Sham

It’s been a rough week for the RIAA as massive layoffs are about to cost many employees their job. On top of that, the anti-piracy outfit is being sued for abusing the legal system for its war on piracy, civil conspiracy, deceptive trade practices, trespassing and computer fraud.

Covering the progress in the various RIAA cases has never been one of our top priorities here at TorrentFreak. The legalese and numerous cases seem to drag on forever, or end up in a settlement where the alleged ‘pirate’ pays the record labels a few thousand dollars.

Today’s coverage at both P2Pnet and Ray Beckerman’s blog, however, caught our eye. In what seems to be a classic David versus Goliath story, Shahanda Moursy from North Carolina has demanded a trial against three major record labels and the RIAA.

Also among the defendants is Mediasentry, the company that harvests IP-addresses of alleged copyright infringers. Previously, Mediasentry’s investigation tactics were deemed illegal in several states because it operated without the appropriate and required paperwork. This is one of the many offenses being used in the present claim.

Moursy is suing the RIAA and others for several offenses, but what really caught our eye is the description of the RIAA’s practices. According to the complaint the RIAA and record labels:



To us, this indeed seems to be a fairly accurate description, but it’s only the start. As we’ve outlined before, the RIAA tends to target the weak, and aim for an early settlement of a few thousand dollars.



And on top of that..



To many, this will all sound very familiar and it’s good to see Mrs. Moursy’s legal representatives describing the tactics of these outfits so vividly. Over the years, tens of thousands have been harassed and threatened because they allegedly downloaded music illegally, exclusively based on shoddy evidence. Justice is calling.

It seems the case the RIAA won was just declared a mistrial:

http://blog.wired.com/27b...blica.html

Judge Declares Mistrial In RIAA’s Only Court Victory
from the jammie-thomas-gets-a-second-chance dept

The RIAA’s only court victory in its years-long legal battle against individuals who engage in unauthorized file sharing has been declared a mistrial, and the $222,000 fine against Jammie Thomas has been thrown out. Jammie Thomas may now face a new trial, but this time, the jury will be instructed that the record labels need to have shown actual infringement — and that simply making files available is not infringement. This is a pretty huge loss for the RIAA, who had been running around like crazy using the Thomas verdict to (a) claim that the courts recognize that “making available” is infringement and (b) that this case somehow proves that file sharers will get huge fines. Yet, now the RIAA is back to having no actual court victories against file sharers, and its “making available = infringement” argument is once again rejected.

Perhaps equally as interesting, in declaring the mistrial, Judge Davis also called upon Congress to change the ridiculous fines that can be levied on file sharers, noting that they seem to be way, way out of proportion to the seriousness of the act:

The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer-to-peer network cases such as the one currently before this Court. . . . While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs’ claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs

well good news that Jammie Thomas has been cleared.

fucking singling out one person for something which every fucking person on planet earth has probably done was a joke and disgrace.

fuck the RIAA.

if somebody wants to download, let them.

Fucking scumbags.

Bootlegs forever, so fuck all yall!!

bboy87 said:

F*** the RIAA. And I hope these massive layoffs leads them to bankruptcy.

dirtyman2005 said: