RIAA lawsuit in plain english

May 10, 2007 4:20 PM

Is there a place to get the RIAA lawsuit summaries in plain english?

I've been extremely interested in the legal path that the RIAA is following. I know of The Recording Industry vs the People, Ars Technica and P2PNet, however, I often find them referencing ongoing or old cases. Often the links go to the actual legal documents, which are confusing for me as a lay person. I'm looking for a place that has the issues, facts and stories laid out neatly and without the legalese.

posted by BlackRose to law & government (2 comments total)

The EFF page on filesharing cases seems to have some good introductory materials.

But if you're really interested in learning about the cases, you're going to have to dive in and get comfortable with the "legalese." What you call "legalese" is often going to be the actual gist of the case. You can't always do a translation into non-legal terminology and still retain the significance.

Don't be scared! There's absolutely no reason why an interested, reasonably intelligent lay person can't come to a very good understanding of legal doctrines. It'll take some time, but you'll be able to do it.
posted by footnote at 7:12 AM on May 11, 2007

I should add that even for lawyers, it often takes multiple close readings, cross-referencings, and consideration before we can understand a single case. It takes patience -- but again, it's not a secret language.

It may be useful for you to start out with a more basic reference about intellectual property, like this. Be sure to avoid anything called a "case book" or "cases and materials," though. Those are usually useless for self-teaching.
posted by footnote at 7:23 AM on May 11, 2007