{"id":586,"date":"2008-11-02T07:22:23","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T12:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nesson\/?p=586"},"modified":"2008-11-02T07:24:22","modified_gmt":"2008-11-02T12:24:22","slug":"really-right-on-funny-comment-at-the-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/2008\/11\/02\/really-right-on-funny-comment-at-the-bottom\/","title":{"rendered":"really right on funny comment at the bottom"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 31, 2008
\nHarvard Law Professor Takes New Tack Against RIAA
\n(from the chronical of higher education<\/a><\/p>\n

A law professor at Harvard University has filed a counterclaim against the Recording Industry Association of America, arguing that a statute it is using to sue Joel Tenenbaum, a student at Boston University, is unconstitutional, Computerworld reports.<\/p>\n

The RIAA had sued Mr. Tenenbaum for violating the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 \u2014 by allegedly copying and distributing copyrighted songs. But according to the law professor, Charles Nesson, that criminal statute cannot be applied to a civil case in federal court.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nesson is challenging both the RIAA\u2019s use of the law and the law itself. It gives the RIAA prosecutorial authority and \u201cunbridled discretion\u201d to sue millions of people, he argues, according to Computerworld.<\/p>\n

This challenge to the RIAA, the magazine says, is broader than many recent ones that focus on the group\u2019s means of gathering evidence against alleged pirates. \u2014Sara Lipka
\nPosted on Friday October 31, 2008 | Permalink |<\/p>\n

Comments<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Joel, for encouraging students to commit theft. That\u2019s why you became a lawyer, right? To help criminals. Your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents would be so proud of you. We all are.<\/p>\n

\u2014 gl Nov 1, 07:26 PM #
\n 2.<\/p>\n

Thanks Joel for helping to reign in unregulated vigilanteism. To #1 you know they (a private, un-licensed, un-badged, un-warranted corporation) can search your computer without your knowledge and use any suspicion they might have to slap a huge lawsuit on you which you will be encouraged to settle (for $2000) or risk going to court and incurring lawyer fees far in excess of that. They, in essence, blackmail the accused (without ever having to prove anything) into forking over $2000. I\u2019m opposed to theft and I think that file sharing is deeply problematic but I find the RIAA\u2019s methods to be more so.<\/p>\n

\u2014 J Nov 1, 08:38 PM #
\n 3.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re right, gl. These are the types of crimes we need to worry about. Let\u2019s make sure this kid is fined $25,000 per song, much of which will go to attorneys\u2019 fees and the recording corporation (which is starving for money, I\u2019m sure).<\/p>\n

Our society is so horrendously overregulated that I find myself actually NOT caring about these so-called \u201ccrimes.\u201d Even if it were my intellectual property\u2014my dissertation, for example\u2014I don\u2019t think I\u2019d care. Let\u2019s focus on some real issues. People are hungry, losing their homes, in real trouble. What a waste of time, money, and resources.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Julia Nov 1, 10:26 PM #
\n 4.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not a lawyer you douche. He\u2019s just some kid who was caught DL-ing music. How are you blaming him for anything?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sam Nov 1, 10:59 PM #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 31, 2008 Harvard Law Professor Takes New Tack Against RIAA (from the chronical of higher education A law professor at Harvard University has filed a counterclaim against the Recording Industry Association of America, arguing that a statute it is using to sue Joel Tenenbaum, a student at Boston University, is unconstitutional, Computerworld reports. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","p1","y2008","m11","d02","h02"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}