The holidays between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 haven’t been particularly pleasant for RIAA and the music majors: the America most hated organization (at least as of Internet) is (supposedly) about to change its legal strategy against file sharing by directly engaging providers, but meanwhile one of these ISP raises a monetary issue that does not promise an easy start for the bizarre joint venture between copyright owners and connectivity providers.

Jerry Scroggin, owner of the small ISP Bayou Internet and Communications in Louisiana, has already notified the industry that he has no intention to place his company’s time and resources at label’s disposal. Or at least he does not want to do so without compensation: “They have the right to protect their songs or music or pictures“, the entrepreneur says, “but they don’t have the right to tell me I have to be the one protecting it. I don’t want anyone doing anything illegal on my network, but we don’t work for free“.

Bayou provides 12,000 connections, and to each one correspond a customer which pays 40 dollars per month for a total of 1,440 dollars within three years. According to Scroggin it’s unreasonable that RIAA pretend his company easily give up to such money for an alleged copyright infringement, and if the association really wants to engage the ISPs then it must be ready to open its wallet and directly contribute to the operation costs.

The provider has already received, in the past, requests of enforcement by the industry, and each time Scroggin has replied in an almost mocking manner asking for a proper contract, in which the technicians’ work required to verify the alleged infringements would meet a proper amount of money for the inconvenience. “Usually“, Scroggin says, after having sent the request “I never hear back“.

Maybe it’s too early to draw conclusions, and it’s almost certain that before announcing to the world the historic switch of its legal strategy RIAA have been in talks with ISPs way more notable than the small Bayou. But there’s a thing worth highlighting: the States connectivity market is full of local providers that must simultaneously face the ruthless competition from the AT&T of the situation and a pretty thin budget, hence if the majors won’t accept the ISP needs on their whole by supporting (and not only with thin air) the declared sharer-hunting the American-flavored Sarkozy doctrine will not have a very long life.

The bad news for RIAA aren’t however limited to providers’ monetary ostracism: the appeal requested by the majors in the Capitol v. Thomas case, the only P2P trial ever held in the USA courts, has been denied by District Judge Michael J. Davis just after Christmas because there is “no substantial ground for a difference of opinion” on the opportunity issue raised by RIAA, nor an eventual appeal would “materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation“.

The majors will then be obliged to return back to the courtroom after the judge has rejected his own previous judgement, thanks to which RIAA had won and Mrs. Jammie Thomas was sentenced to pay up a fine of 222,000 dollars for 24 (alleged) shared tracks. According to judge Davis the court “must still address the constitutionality of the damages award” granted to the plaintiffs, an award already defined as “wholly disproportionate” to the alleged damages suffered by the RIAA members.

Thanks to the always accurate work of the lawyer-blogger Ray Beckerman, furthermore, the complete transcription of the Thomas trail records is now available on-line. It is a 643 pages-long tome divided in three parts, full of extremely interesting details for those who want to inspect the technical procedures followed by the RIAA inquirers, the experts’ testimonies and anything else related to the trial.

RIAA’s 2009 isn’t starting well also for the SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum case, in which the Harvard professor Charles Nesson has come to university downloader Joel Tenenbaum defense claiming charges of unconstitutionality, fraud and conspiracy towards RIAA. Nesson has asked the court to make available on-line the trial’s complete audio-visual report, so exposing to public judgement the alleged “campaign to educate” the users carried forward by the majors with the unsuccessful legal crusade leaded until now.

As a partial confirm of the legal crusade dismission, anyway, from The Wall Street Journal comes the news according to which RIAA would have ditched its usual partner for spying investigatory operations against file sharing users, that MediaSentry (subsidiary of SafeNet Inc) over and over accused of having done illegal investigations on-line on behalf of the majors.

According to Beckerman the relationship break between RIAA and MediaSentry is a “victory” for his clients (and not only) against the muddy work of the industry’s detectives, liable for having been “invading the privacy of people“. With MediaSentry dismissed, the labels’ organization will turn to Copenaghen-based DtecNet Software company for its forensic needs.

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