

The RIAA apparently produced a new video, already available on a variety of torrent tracker sites, in conjunction with the National District Attorneys Association with the goal of instructing U.S. prosecutors on how to deal with music piracy cases. According to early reports, the video, called In Trial, also provides instructions on how to get an RIAA investigator qualified as a court expert.

P2PNet's Jon Newton pointed out that the video kicks off with a judge's gavel slamming down, and that we can expect clips from the file to appear on video sharing sites soon. This of course would be followed by a meta-lawsuit in which the RIAA sues to protect something it recorded itself.

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Update: The video apparently isn't as old as it seems, and pertains mostly to physical CD piracy, with ex-Maryland state trooper Frank Walters pointing to a CD burner tower and showing how prosecutors can identify a pirated CD (no printing on the CD). It also includes some choice lines like as this one, about how piracy accusations can help take down people who are skirting other laws (think Al Capone):

Jim Dedman, National District Attorneys Association: "If I have my drug officers out there, and they see what seems like a nice music collection, this may be something you could help me out with."

Deborah Robinson, Regional Counsel, Anti-Piracy Div., RIAA: "Exactly, exactly. And sometimes drug officers call us and say, 'we know they're selling music, can you help us?... We're trying to arrest this drug dealer, what should I look for, what should I put in that affidavit?

Here's a short clip from YouTube (again, the entire "In Trial" video is available via torrent tracker sites):

Newton writes,

Starring ex-prosecutor Deborah Robinson and Frank Walters,

an ex-Maryland State trooper, it was made to "assist in the training ofU.S. prosecutors responsible for handling music piracy cases." It includes footage from "surveillance" videos and, "techniques onhow to identify illegal sound recordings and highlights," not tomention, "examples of how illegal music is sold." And here's the kicker. It even claims to provide instructions on, and we quote, "qualifying an RIAA investigator as an expert." So that's where Doug Jacobson and MediaSentry acquired their skills!

Nice one.

Update: Pirate Bay user phrackingtoast claims to have originally obtained the video through a friend who "holds a position in the criminal prosecutorial system":