Sticking it to the Man

For those who are unaware, which would be most people who do not have a strange nerdy obsession with all things music business, there is a very interesting lawsuit currently in development. Ars Technica has a very good rundown of the story here. But for those not inclined to read the whole thing right now I'll give a very quick summary.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has a recent history of bringing very intimidating lawsuits against people accused of illegally obtaining music from the Internet. These lawsuits often involve people who have been accused of downloading only a few songs/files. Frequently those accused will settle out of court for large sums of money in order to avoid the potential for multi-million dollar penalties in court.

The way the RIAA goes about this comes off to many people as a disproportionately large response to the crime (if they even call it that) being committed. The tactics they use also seem to have questionable legal grounding and limited morality.

Finally, they wound up in a situation where someone decided to fight back in an unconventional way. Joel Tenenbaum got in touch with Prof. Charles Nesson from Harvard law school and secured his legal council. Nesson got his graduate students involved and now we have a whole new ball game.

Nesson and the rest of his legal team are seeking permission to stream hearings and legal proceedings over the Internet. They also are bringing a counter-suit against the RIAA claiming that their tactics are actually unconstitutional.

As we step into a new environment where intellectual property and copyright laws are questioned by the consumer and musicians seek new methods of marketing and distribution, a case like this that throws into question the legality of a group that publicly appears to represent the record industry, and hints at coming change.

The general population has for a large part abandoned the old system of CDs and brick and mortar stores in favor of instant access to almost infinite music, and now the legality of practices of those trying to maintain the old system is questioned.

Though I will not venture a guess at the future, this lawsuit certainly could effect it greatly.