Severance Ordered in More RIAA Suits (From Wendy Seltzer)
Perhaps forcing the RIAA to actually follow established law and civil procedure (which all of us learn in first year law school), they will find that their crusade is a lot more difficult and expensive than they originally thought....
In another win for due process, Judges Sam Sparks and Lee Yeakel ruled that recording industry lawsuits in the Western District of Texas would have to proceed individually -- rather than 150+ "Does" at a time. See PDF Order. As the judges noted, the RIAA members' practice violates the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Rule 20(a), joinder, requires that parties be linked in the "same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences." Moreover,
The filing fees for the recent four cases totaled $600, whereas the filing fees for 254 separate cases would have been $38,100. That is a considerable loss of revenue to the public coffers.Thanks Jon and Jim.
Similar orders have now been filed in Pennsylvania (2x), Florida, and in a movie industry suit in California, plus several DirecTV cases around the country. Note to lawyers and law students -- that CivPro is pretty important.
[Wendy: The Blog]