Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Arista v Does 1-16 argued on November 20th

In Arista v. Does 1-16, the appeal from the lower court's rulings was argued in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on Friday, November 20th.

Decision was reserved.

Briefs:

Brief of Appellant
Appellees' Brief
Appellant's Reply Brief

[Ed. note. I was in attendance. Unfortunately, the argument did not appear to go well, and did not deal with any of the procedural unfairness issues in the RIAA's inappropriate use of ex parte procedures where they could easily provide prior notice through the ISP. See, ABA Judges' Journal Article: "Large Recording Companies vs. The Defenseless : Some Common Sense Solutions to the Challenges of the RIAA Litigations". I was very disappointed that so many important issues were not aired in the argument. - R.B.]


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Monday, November 16, 2009

Attorneys fee appeal in Lava v Amurao rejected by "summary order"

In Lava Records v. Amurao, the appeal by Rolando Amurao from a lower court order denying his attorneys fee motion, the Second Circuit has affirmed the order of the lower court by a "summary order" (an order having no precedential effect).

The Court relied in part upon

Amurao’s pre-suit written admission to the plaintiffs that “[w]e downloaded the songs [in question] through a program called Lime Wire,” Amurao’s subsequent less-than-candid responses to plaintiffs’ discovery requests, and the plaintiffs’ efforts to terminate this case quickly once it became clear through discovery that another member of Amurao’s household, rather than Amurao himself, had, in fact, downloaded the copyrighted materials.
November 16, 2009, Summary Order, USCtApp 2nd Cir

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Correction: Part of Tanya Andersen's class action dismissed by District Court judge

In Andersen v. Atlantic Recording, Tanya Andersen's abuse-of-process class action, the Court granted the RIAA's motion for partial summary judgment dismissing so much of Ms. Andersen's claims as arise from initiation of an action against her.

The motion did not involve so much of Ms. Andersen's claims as arise from the RIAA's continuation of the action against her. That aspect of her case remains pending.

The basis for the Court's decision was the Noerr-Pennington doctrine.

November 12, 2009, opinion and order granting RIAA's motion for summary judgment dismissing complaint

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