News

We've reported many times on the mass lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against individuals or institutions that it alleges are illegally participating in peer-to-peer file-sharing activities, so we felt it only fair to report on a lawsuit where the trade group is being sued. Actually, the RIAA's attorneys are being sued by James and Angela Nelson, who were themselves the target of Motown v. Nelson, which alleged that the couple had allowed an employee of Ms. Nelson's home-run daycare center to access P2P websites from their computer.

The Nelsons were sued because of that employee's deposition that she had accessed KaZaa with the Nelsons' "knowledge and approval." However, during a second deposition, the teenager recanted, claiming the Nelsons had no knowledge of KaZaa and no idea where the songs were coming from. She said she'd ratted the Nelsons out because she was scared that she was going to be in trouble herself unless she shifted the blame. As reported on Recording Industry vs the People, "a blog devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people," John Hermann, the Nelson's attorney, said, "Not surprisingly, the RIAA has tried to threaten the child in order to induce her to change her testimony, even going so far as to hire a private investigator to try to procure a false affidavit indicating that I was active in suborning perjury. Unless they withdraw their complaint against Mrs. Nelson, I will be asking the Court to award sanctions under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure."

John Hermann followed through on that promise. Read the filing and weep. If the legalese is too dense, just scroll down the page and read the transcripts.

We probably shouldn't find this as amusing as we do, but we just can't help thinking it ironic that the RIAA, ever ready to get on its high horse about the propriety of its cause, should employ the tactics of Tony Soprano. Wait, strike that—Tony Soprano's ethics aren't quite that flexible.