What Questions Would You Ask An RIAA 'Expert'? 616
NewYorkCountryLawyer asks: "In UMG v. Lindor, the RIAA has submitted an 'expert' report (pdf) and 26-page curriculum vitae (pdf), prepared by Dr. Doug Jacobson of Iowa State University who is the RIAA's expert witness in all of its cases against consumers, relating to alleged copyright infringement by means of a shared files folder on Kazaa, and supposed analysis of the hard drive of a computer in Ms. Lindor's apartment. The RIAA's 'experts' have been shut down in the Netherlands and Canada, having been shown by Prof. Sips and Dr. Pouwelse of Delft University's Parallel and Distributed Systems research group (pdf) to have failed to do their homework, but are still operating in the USA. The materials were submitted in connection with a motion to compel Ms. Lindor's son, who lives 4 miles away from her, to turn over his computer and music listening devices to the RIAA. Both Ms. Lindor's attorney (pdf) and Ms. Lindor's son's attorney (pdf) have objected to the introduction of these materials, but Dr. Jacobson's document production and deposition are scheduled for January and February, and we would love to get the tech community's ideas for questions to ask, and in general your reactions, thoughts, opinions, information, and any other input you can share with us. (In case you haven't guessed, we are the attorneys for Ms. Lindor.)"
I'd ask: (Score:5, Funny)
You see, I'm doing a research paper on how long a human can live without a brain.
"WTF?" (Score:1, Funny)
or....was it painful... (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously?? (Score:1, Funny)
A lawyer posting an "Ask Slashdot" question? Isn't that a sign of the apocalypse?
Freedom (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, man, this is sad. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Seriously?? (Score:5, Funny)
Is he going to bill us?
Re:I'd ask: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:or....was it painful... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Seriously?? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I'd Ask them... (Score:1, Funny)
Dear Slashot (Score:1, Funny)
Although I went to law school, I have no idea what "discovery" or "cross-examination" are. Since many of your readers installed Ubuntu on a computer, they are obviously qualified to try my case for me.
Could someone out there do my job for me, please?
Re:Seriously?? (Score:3, Funny)
"Just how can you sleep at night?" (Score:5, Funny)
LOL (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine serenading your love interest, and calling her out to the balcony and holding up the radio to her room, hit play, and get a "Authorization Required, please contact RIAA"
Sorry entertainment on a boring work day, my apologies
Re:Conflict of interest (Score:5, Funny)
I see you've never actually used Kazaa or similar P2P networks.
I've heard of that! (Score:2, Funny)