RIAA's New Litigation Boss Is Former Exec Caught 'Misstating Facts' In Court

from the ethics-anyone? dept

The RIAA has announced that Jennifer Pariser is its new Senior VP of Litigation — which is at first interesting given that the RIAA claimed it was giving up on litigation. Of course, the truth is that the RIAA is not actually giving up on litigation, it just is cutting back because (a) the lawsuits have been woefully ineffective and (b) they’re not even an effective means of bringing in revenue anymore. So, the RIAA decided that it would cut back, and in doing so turn it into a media frenzy by falsely claiming it was stopping the lawsuits.

But, for some of you, Pariser’s name may be familiar. That’s because when she was at her last job, as an executive at Sony BMG, she testified in the infamous Jammie Thomas trial — where she was caught outright lying on the stand, which the RIAA later admitted (well, it claimed she “misspoke”). While the Thomas trial was eventually declared a mistrial due to a mistake made by the judge, I’ve never understood why Thomas’s team didn’t respond to the fact that the RIAA has admitted that its own “expert” witness lied on the stand in claiming that making a single copy of a song from a CD for personal use is “stealing.” And, now, the RIAA rewards her by putting her in charge of its litigation strategy?

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Companies: riaa

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Comments on “RIAA's New Litigation Boss Is Former Exec Caught 'Misstating Facts' In Court”

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25 Comments
PhillD says:

Re: You cant do a thing to the RIAA, you aren't their customer.

Seriously,

Music consumers are not the RIAA’s customers. There is flat out NOTHING we can do directly to them that will have any effect on their “business practices”.

What we can and should do is stop letting the OBVIOUS misdirection work and hold the record companies BEHIND the RIAA totally responsible for the RIAA’s actions, BECAUSE THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM.

As I have said (and am begenning to see repeated in some forums), It’s NOT “Fuck the RIAA” it’s “Fuck EMI, Fuck Sony Music Entertainment, Fuck Universal Music Group and Fuck Warner Music Group”

I know it’s not nearly as catchy and much longer to type but I swear, if every time the RIAA sued someone the record companies got letters telling them that we wouldn’t be buying any more of their music in ANY form till the prosecutions stopped the RIAA would change it’s “business practices” pretty damn quick.
Why? because THEIR CUSTOMERS would tell them to.

Matt says:

Re: no reward

considering that they aren’t phasing it out, I would indeed consider that a promotion/reward. They have spent millions on litigation and I’ll bet every penny in my name that it won’t stop until they go out of business.

thus, I hope that all these major music companies go out of business outright. the time to phase them out into obsolescence has come like 25 years ago.

Anonymous Coward says:

She has proven herself willing to perjure herself in court for the “cause” so why wouldn’t she be rewarded? It is funny to see people like this take risks with their life/health/reputation/freedom/etc for corporations when those same corporations would hang you out to dry in a heart beat. Heck, they will have you replaced before a week goes by if needed. I for one will not take a bullet for my company and can’t understand why others will???

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

I’ve been waiting for someone to temper the discussion with a reasonable view from the other side, but this is the best we ever get. You all complain about how one-sided TechDirt is, but you never offer us anything more. There’s no dissenting opinion here, just complaints. Please set the record straight by showing where techDirt’s over-stated, because I don’t have the data on my own.

Mike (profile) says:

Re: Re:

It seems that Techdirt will miss no opportunity to fan the flames with its overstated anti-copyright rhetoric.

MLS, I’m curious as to what “anti-copyright rhetoric” was used in this post? Can you point me to something that was factually incorrect, or are you simply trolling again? For a supposedly respectable IP lawyer, it reflects poorly on you to make blind accusations without adding a single fact to back yourself up.

You never know says:

Boycotts won’t work because we all know people will not go with out their music, It’s like an addiction. However the court system is getting tired of their endless crap. As it was stated, it is not a profitable exploit and the general public is getting wise to their drivel. Given time it will go away. The shame of it all. The people who have been duped into surrendering money will never have a change to recoup.

Xiera says:

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Senior Vice President of Litigation? This shouldn’t surprise me in the least, but I hadn’t considered this before: they have an entire department dedicated to litigation?

And the “powers that be” don’t see a problem with this? It’s one thing to hire a lawyer when someone trespasses on your rights, but having a permanent litigation department to harass people at a whim…?

I really shouldn’t be surprised… (it is the American way, after all, yes?)

Rekrul says:

While the Thomas trial was eventually declared a mistrial due to a mistake made by the judge, I’ve never understood why Thomas’s team didn’t respond to the fact that the RIAA has admitted that its own “expert” witness lied on the stand in claiming that making a single copy of a song from a CD for personal use is “stealing.”

Because her lawyer is incompetent.

Law Executive (user link) says:

law

The problem is that IP is already inconsistent with property rights. People can enforce their own property right, at the most basic level, with their fists. You cannot do the same with ideas, since these quickly spawn in people’s minds by distribution. The only way IP can be “enforced” is by trampling on other people’s rights to how they use their OWN property. See my example above of the cavemen and the limestone wheels.

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