Intellectual Property Directions

Sheri Qualters reports in the National Law Journal on Monday that Judge Nancy Gertner dismissed defendant Joel Tenenbaum’s counterclaim argument that the record industry’s lawsuits to stop parties downloading and distributing copyrighted works is an “abuse of process”.

Tenenbaum’s argument, apparently, was that the RIAA campaign is focused at students and other young people who cannot afford attorneys. In particular, of course, Tenenbaum feels cases like his are using a sledgehammer to swat flies in order to strike fear in whole population of individuals unable to defend themselves.

Unfortunately for Tenenbaum, the judge is reported to have stated: “Abuse of process, as the cause of action is defined, does not turn on the identity of the defendants, their ability to hire an attorney, nor their inclination to settle the claims against them.” …  ”Congress has handed the Plaintiffs a massive hammer to combat copyright infringement, and they have chosen to use it. That choice, whether wise or unwise, does not amount to an abuse of process.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under copyrights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.