Is the tide slowly turning on the file fascists?
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=917The recording industry’s methods of investigation have been less than subtle, as seen in the case of Mediasentry. Mediasentry are part of a growing industry specifically set up to assist in identifying filesharers. Their techniques are exported from the USA; sniffing out those sharing files on the internet and listing what is in the user’s shared folder. This is just one example of over zealous US investigatory methods being applied internationally, and has been ruled unlawful under EU law in the case brought by BREIN - the Dutch equivalent of the RIAA.
Those receiving demands for settlement have traditionally chosen to settle rather than risk the uncertainty and cost of having their day in court. But the situation is shifting imperceptibly, with at least one person widely reported to be challenging the BPI demand for settlement in the UK and at least a further three challenging the RIAA in the USA, the spectacular case of Chan and the well publicized cases of
Leadbetter
and Santangelo amongst them. In the case of Candy Chan, this resulted in a victory for the defendant. Filesharers are not only starting to fight back, but having sufficiently humiliated the RIAA to publicly withdraw their one case, are proving the battle can actually be won. Early days yet, but the tide seems to be turning in their favour.
This is a well written article by a lawyer no less, so I would agree with many of the conclusions that are brought out in the article.
