RIAA sues and loses

A recent RIAA court case in the US against defendant Debbie Foster has turned into an very important and interesting one.

The case started out when the RIAA filed legal proceedings against Ms. Foster. The RIAA found her public IP address to be the address of a shared folder on a ‘well known file sharing network’ (limewire then).

She however claimed to be completely ignorant of file sharing, let alone the accused action. She however stated that her daughter and her daughter’s estranged husband also had access to the same account.

The RIAA, instead of simply dropping the case, decided the sue Debbie Foster’s daughter, leaving her as a co-defendant. That makes sense! Both mother and daughter refused to settle (most people do not however), so the case went to court.

The US district court judge, Lee R. West decided that both defendants were not liable to be sued, and so demanded the RIAA to pay their legal fees – which they are in turn refusing and requesting it to be reconsidered.

Even more unbeleivable, the RIAA’s main evidence boiled down to (and I quote) ‘… the defendant heard music coming from the computer when admitted infringer Amanda Foster was using it.’. OH MY GOD! That must mean she’s stealing music, and leaving poor children in Africa without food tonight! Gosh, I feel dirty; I’ll turn my music down shall I?

The RIAA: The irate 70 year-old man of a organisation.
“Turn that music down, or I’ll sue. And get a job, ya bum.”

Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, stuff you might not have seen about it.

Hello again, was going to post this around a month ago, but things happened.

The Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill last year created a lot of controversy on what could be said and what couldn’t. Anyone who has there finger on the pulse of what insane laws parliament tries pass through should know all about this one. However, I’m not here to rant about what is good and what is bad but to rather show you two things related to this bill or created in direct response to it.

The first is a rather good debate held at the Guardian Hay Festival last year on blasphemy between warmonger Christopher Hitchens and insanely articulate Stephen Fry. (Maybe I’ve let my allegiances show a bit early here, but Mr Hitchens does make a good point, maybe two)
Anyway you can download the whole thing by clicking here. It’s 78mins long, but just to hear the speech/rant at the end from Stephen is worth the whole download.

The second thing you should have looked at when it was on was comedian Stewart Lee’s “Don’t Get Me Started”. A very funny one off about blasphemy that is also very intelligent at the same time, but expect nothing less from the seasoned funnyman. You can only find it on youtube now but take a look anyway by clicking here That is the first part of 6 parts, so make sure you look at all of them.

Enjoy.