Copyright Law

RIAA Member Lawyer Blames Joel for ThePirateBay Mixtape

By DrewWilson

Interesting new development in the Tenenbaum case. After ThePirateBay posted the DJ Joel Mixtape, a torrent of the songs Joel was sued for ($675,000 in damages), the development made it’s way into court documents. Plaintiffs were apparently not impressed saying, “despite the verdict and a clear finding of willful copyright infringement by Defendant, he continues to promote, indeed advertise, illegal online file-sharing of
Plaintiffs? copyrighted sound recordings”

Maybe it’s our imagination, but last we checked, Joel Tenenbaum is not an admin of ThePirateBay nor did he have much involvement in the creation of the mixtape outside of the court documents that listed the songs in the first place.

Still, that doesn’t stop the RIAA member from pulling out all of the stops against Tenenbaum. In court documents, plaintiffs argued, “on or about August 14, 2009, Defendant posted to the ?JoelFightsBack? twitter
site?a site intended to publicize Defendant and this case?the following post: ?interesting: a
“joel” torrent list of the 30 songs is now on thepirateBay/other torrent sites and is being DL
widely in protest. #JFB.?

The document continues, “The Pirate Bay?s homepage, to which Defendant directed his readers,
prominently featured a photograph of Defendant and an advertisement and link to an allegedly
RIAA approved torrent, ?DJ Joel ? The $675,000 Mixtape,? containing the 30 songs at issue in
this case”

The document contained a screen shot of the home page of ThePirateBay which, at the time, featured the $675,000 mixtape. The document says, “When a user clicks on the image, they are brought to a Torrent site that allows users to easily, and without authorization or cost, download the 30 sound recordings for which
Defendant was found liable.”

“Additionally, Defendant?s website regarding this case, www.joelfightsback.com, includes literally dozens of other users who have picked up the ?tweet? from joelfightsback and have reposted it to their own blogs and twitter feeds, thereby encouraging countless other individuals to illegally download these 30 songs ?in protest? [...] In short, despite the verdict and a clear finding of willful copyright infringement by Defendant, he continues to promote, indeed advertise, illegal online file-sharing of Plaintiffs? copyrighted sound recordings?the very sound recordings for which a jury found him liable for willful copyright infringement”

It should be noted that there were three other arguments to support the plaintiffs conclusion, but using the mixtape someone half way around the world posted on a Swedish website as reason to say that Tenenbaum is contributing to copyright infringement (we aren’t aware of any evidence in the plaintiffs court documents that Tenebaum linked to that website in the first place) is absurd at best. If someone photoshopped a picture of Bill Gates breaking in to a car, does that make Bill Gates liable for car theft if it was posted online? The only thing plaintiffs showed was that Tenebaum mentioned the mixtape. If one were to say, “Interesting that someone in America would take cocaine”, is that somehow endorsing illegal drug use?

So what is the plaintiff asking for?

This court should permanently enjoining defendant from committing, or acting in concert with others in committing, future infringement of plaintiffs’ copyrights

This court should enter the monetary judgement awarded by the jury on July 31, 2009

It’s an extremely bizarre argument to make that suggests that others actions are somehow your fault even though you took no part in the creation or actions that started to, in this case, create the actual mixtape in the first place. It’s a growing theme that the copyright industry wants to double-dip – you are sued for your action and the action of your friend. Then that friend is sued for their action as well as yours. Essentially, it’s like your being sued twice for the same action.

We wonder how such an argument could be taken seriously, but then again, there are reasons why some believe the American court system has been bought and paid for by corporate America.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).