This is a case we have been watching for some time now and its likely to be one that sets a new tone for the RIAA,s moronic "sue-our-customers " campaign.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9898/Harvard+Prof+%26+Students+Fight+the+RIAA+TodayToday at a hearing in Rhode Island federal court, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson and his team of students will defend Rhode Island residents Arthur and Judie Tenenbaum from the RIAA's infamous shakedown tactics. The Tenenbaums face legal pressure from the music industry's lawsuit against their son, Joel, a graduate student at Boston University accused of illegally sharing music files online.
Nesson and his team allege that the Recording Industry Association of America and a coalition of record companies are abusing the federal court system with their litigation tactics, which attempt to make an example out of Joel and his family in the name of “deterrence.” Joel faces possible damages of more than $1 million for allegedly sharing seven songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network.
The Dec. 15 hearing will address the recording industry's motion to force Arthur and Judie to produce their home computer so that it can be inspected for evidence of copyright infringement. The computer is not the device on which the alleged downloading took place, and Arthur and Judie did not own the computer when Joel lived with them.
“The basic rules of evidence suggest that this invasion of privacy is both unnecessary and absurd,” said Matt Sanchez, one of Nesson’s students working on the case.
The RIAA are looking for whats known in the trade as a "fishing expedition" to try to find some sort of material that will make the professors team drop and settle the case on his clients behalf, for sure a sign of a non-existent portfolio of evidence as they claim when they go to court to get subpoenas, I hope the judge sees this for what it is and asks the RIAA to prove the case based on their supposed evidence, something they claimed to already have.
