AfterDawn: News

RIAA sends erroneous DMCA notices

The Recording Industry Association of America has admitted to sending at least two dozen DMCA case-and-desist letters last week to people who were sharing nothing illegal. RIAA claims the responsibility on a temporary worker, who was behind all the erroneous notices.

Probably the weirdest notice was sent to Speakeasy, the ISP providing services to Amigascene.org - a site ran by Amiga enthusiasts, consisting of nothing but legal, community created software and media. RIAA informed Speakeasy, that Amigascene.org's FTP site "offers approximately 0 sound files for download. Many of these files contain recordings owned by our member companies, including songs by such artists as Creed."



These kinds of mistakes are possible because RIAA doesn't require its "copyright enforcers", such as MediaForce, to actually listen to the infringing material before sending a cease-and-desist order.

Source:
News.com

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 13 May 2003 15:57

• Previous article

• Universal sues Bertelsmann

• Next article

• Macrovison press release: SafeDisc DVD-ROM released

• 6 comments

• seamonkey

  HAHAHA!!!!
  
  figures.. doesn't this just show the obvious?? that actual good, law abiding citizens (i exclude myself from this category.. heheh...) will be affected for doing nothing wrong.
  
  IMHO, the RIAA is about to open pandora's box on itself. Its obvious that the music and motion pictures industry doesn't have a clue about computer technology and security. Its like they want to start a geek war against REAL geeks. It should be an interesting battle once it begins.. sad to say, the RIAA and MPAA might be on the losing.
  
  KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SPREAD THE POWER!
  and of course, always remember the mentors last words....
  
  peace
  seamonkey420
  

  'knowledge is power, spread the power'
  -Athlon XP 2000+, 740MB DDR-SDRAM,HP DVD200i DVD+R/+RW, 100GB and 60GB WD HD
  -XBOX w/Matrix mod chip and 60GB HDD
  http://www.geocities.com/daseamonkey420 or
  http://www.geocities.com/seamonkeyguides

  13.5.2003 17:05 #1

• netmovies

  Funny how things happen in the same time my Press Release came out. I am trying to put a end to the way the RIAA and the MPAA are using and abusing the DMCA For good take a look at my case and you will see. Thanks
  
  Michael J. Rossi
  InternetMovies.com
  
  
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  May 12, 2003
  
  INTERNETMOVIES.COM appeals to U.S. Ninth Circuit Court against federal judge's ruling THAT DMCA does not require MPAA to conduct any investigation to shutdown websites.
  
  KAHULUI, Maui, Hawaii, May 12 / -- The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii granted the Defendant's motion on April 29, 2003, in regard to the case of Michael J. Rossi d.b.a. InternetMovies.com vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) et al. InternetMovies.com attorney, Jim Fosbinder said, “The Judge has held that the "good faith belief" requirement before sending cease and desist letters under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not require the MPAA to conduct any investigation prior to sending cease and desist letters to Internet service providers. The same "good faith belief" phrase has been held to require an investigation in hundreds of other federal decisions where the phrase is used in other federal statutes and rules including copyright, trademark, securities and federal rules of civil procedure cases. In the InternetMovies.com case, the MPAA admitted sending threatening letters to the Internet service provider without conducting any investigation.”
  
  The lawsuit was filed against the MPAA last year, on April 25, 2002 as a result of a series of cease and desist orders issued in March and April 2001, wrongfully accusing InternetMovies.com for distributing unauthorized copies of copyrighted motion pictures and ultimately the wrongful shutdown of the entire web site http://www.InternetMovies.com . One of the downloadable movies noted by the MPAA was “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”, which is due in theaters in December 2003 and was to be in post production at the time of the cease and desist order. The allegations against the MPAA include interference with contractual obligations, interference with prospective economic advantage, as well as libel and defamation. A settlement agreement was offered to InternetMovies.com by the MPAA if Rossi waived the right to appeal. InternetMovies.com did not settle and will be appealing the decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit contending that unless a requirement of a reasonable investigation prior to shutting down a web site is read into the DMCA, the DMCA would alter the usual legal relationship of the parties in favor of the copyright holder, providing little or no recourse to the person or business wrongfully accused of violating copyright laws. In addition, InternetMovies.com will be contending that the requirement of the DMCA’s "good faith belief" of alleged infringement has in nearly every other context been held to require a reasonable inquiry or investigation, which was not done by the MPAA prior to the shutdown. InternetMovies.com intends to ask the District Court Judge to reconsider its ruling that a "good faith belief" does not require the MPAA to make any investigation.
  
  InternetMovies.com is a web site with an online directory of artists' works and Internet news magazine providing information and resources about movies on the Internet. One of the goals of InternetMovies.com is to allow studios and independent artists to distribute digitally secure movies to its membership and duly compensate artists for their works.
  

  InternetMovies.com

  13.5.2003 20:44 #2

• mystic

  well can we call that harrasment ... if the riaa sends me one fake or misdirected notice then I'll send them a harassment charge with a cease and disist order filed with a court here in northern maine ... lets see if they would like to get hit with a hacking charge for looking at my hdd's? the power needs to be taken away from them ... so heres the way to do it every time you get one of those notices them youwrite it down time and date and what you were doing.... next after 3 of them you go down to your local court house and file harrasment charges on them the best thing about this cost is about 5.00 and send it to them registered and then they sign for it and must come good for showing up at court or they become in contempt. if they get hit like this by say 100 people then they have to pay 100 lawyers then we up it to 200 and so on.......... lets see if the court system wants to take on this anymore once you make the court burnt about this hen no one will want to listin to them anymore....

  14.5.2003 08:13 #3

• tribal-t

  Wow, the RIAA screwed up! Big surprise! According to one article, they blamed this on a temporary employee, who was later fired. This coming from the same people who can find and convict P2P users of copyright infringement. Good Luck with That RIAA!

  14.5.2003 13:07 #4

• goodswipe

  penis

  15.5.2003 20:21 #5

• vudoo

  I like what you said mystic about filing a harrassment charge for a false order to desist. Well maybe we can turn the tables on the NPAA/RIAA. It is time to give the power back to the people and not the corporations. Once this is done peace will be upon all of us who enjoy technology and computers. It is hard to imagine that the people of the US can be so easily convienced that nothing can be done to stop these tyrants. We do have the right to overthrow a tyrant as it says in the US constitution. So of this is true then why havent we stopped the peoples republic if California yet? Maybe because the youth of the nation thinks it will all go away one night while they sleep or one day while they are smoking marajunna. And I hate to tell you all that the joke is on you and not the RIAA/NPAA. These people have done things that we the people would spend a lifetime in prison of we tried it. So how you like them now?
  
  Voodoohippi
  (Defender of FREE cyberspace)

  26.5.2003 20:39 #6