Napster Legal Battle Reaches from Beyond the Grave

neelm writes "The EFF is reporting that EMI and Universal Music Group may have been caught lying to the Department of Justice in the 2001 antitrust investigation involving MusicNet, and pressplay. The 2001 investigation found no evidence of illegal efforts to monopolize digital music distribution, but new evidence presented by Hummer Winblad and Bertelsman ("original napster" investors) in their on-going defense from the RIAA suggests otherwise. The judge ruled that the documents to be turned over were not protected by attorney-client privilege because '[the court] finds reasonable cause to believe that the attorney's services were utilized in furtherance of the ongoing unlawful scheme.'"

Excellent

[voice_of_all_reason]

Here's hoping they skip the white-collar gig and go directly to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. Heck, obstruction of justice was enough to get Martha Stewart convicted.

Re:The RIAA might be lying?

[Spy der Mann]

Whoa. The RIAA might be lying.

Yeah, but now we got PROOF.

Slap these companies up side the head, HARD!!!

[mobiux]

The fact that companies even think this is ok to try is why I have no faith in our legal system.
These companies should have something severe as a punishment, like serious jailtime for the offenders and big fines for the corporation.

Although the current justice dept will probably just put them in the proverbial "time-out" then give them a cookie.
Make an example out of a couple of them.
The government should have the will to reject a corporation's charter for shit like this.

No Big Deal

[RedHatLinux]

The investigation will result in a few token gesture penalities and business will continue as usual. Do you really think politicians are going to allow major donors to face serious punishment?

Re:Excellent-Coming out of the closet.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's, presumably, a quote from the movie "Office Space" where the characters talk about how they'll be going to "pound-me-in-the-ass prison" after stealing something like $400,000 from the bank their company wrote software for.

You see, in America, anal rape in prison is considered funny and part of the punishment for whatever crime commited. I'm not entirely sure why anal rape is considered an acceptable part of prison and consensual anal sex is considered illegal (which is rather ironic - get convicted of having consensual anal sex, get sent to a prison where it's expected that you'll get anally raped).

But, it's just another part of America's messed up culture on sex - sex is OK as a punishment, but must be bad if it's consensual. See, 'cause enjoying things is bad, according to some interpretations of the Bible.

The real issue is copyrights

[argoff]

I think the problem is that we clearly have a system that is unworkable in the information age and instead of dealing with it, people sue, people complain, they cry "wahhh, how will I make money with my book", or "wahhh, how will I make money with my movie", or "think of the starving artists", or they want to "fix" it in some way - without accepting that by now copyrights are an all or nothing game.

In fact copyeight compromizes are the worst thing we could to. It's like the US conolists compromising with the Brits, it's like the slave states compromising with the free states. People who thought it was workable simply were in denial of the real world and real world forces that were in play.

Re:Slap these companies up side the head, HARD!!!

[thewiz]

Screw slapping them; companies that try to subvert our judicial system should be dismantled. The CEOs and other management that condoned this should never agin be allowed to run a company and faced very stiff penalties.

Companies today believe they can act with impunity and they need to be shown otherwise.

Re:No Big Deal

[iminplaya]

The investigation will result in a few token gesture penalities and business will continue as usual.

It's called a settlement. Something the cartels do all the time. "Without admitting any wrongdoing". And then we, the customers, tell them, "Very well then. Carry on." And continue to buy their crap.

Do you really think politicians are going to allow major donors to face serious punishment?

Only if they themselves thought that they might get caught in the scheme. Then they would throw them (the "donors") to the wolves. Which will make the politician look like a hero to their constituents. They'll destroy one cartel to help another.

Re:Been Caught Lyin'

[Whyzzi]

In a word: Propaganda [wikipedia.org]

Re:Been Caught Lyin'

[rossz]

Under this administration? This kind of shit has been going on for decades. The entertainment industry has a death grip on the penises of so many politicians, both demos and repubs, that they can do pretty much what they want. They recording industry is caught in payola schemes and price fixing every couple of years and gets a light slap on the hand, then they go back to business as usual. It happens when the demos are in power, too.

Re:Excellent

[yoder]

Ordinarily I'd agree with you and say it is overreacting to the situation. This case is different. These corporations have been extorting money from hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people over the past 20+ years, effectively making the Mafia look like amateurs. They have then used that same money to purchase legislation making it easier for them to continue unchallenged. Now their illegal acts are beginning to bite them on the ass and we are supposed to forgive and forget? Well, to put it bluntly:

Not a chance in fucking hell. Send the sick fucks to a Federal Pen.

Re:No Problem

[glindsey]

I wish I could find this comment funny. I really, really do.

(sigh)

How about

[phorm]

a) Given the equal or greater number of stories about the niceties offered to prisoners (video games, cable, etc) - depending on the prison the though of anal violation adds somewhat to the deterrence factor

b) People make fun of what they fear. Personally being analy violated is a rather fearsome prospect to me, but if it were brought up I'd probably joke about it. There are many similar jokes based on a similarly macabre sense of humour.