BitTorrent Case Judge Is a Former RIAA Lobbyist

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This just doesn't seem right, does it? At the very least, shouldn't they be able to get a new judge on the case?

Less than a week after her investiture ceremony, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell laid down a landmark verdict that will make it easy for copyright holders to send cash demands to people they suspect of copyright infringement. Many people called the decision into doubt, and the revelation that Judge Howell previously worked as an RIAA lobbyist and as the Managing Director of a pirate-chasing outfit hints at a conflict of interest.
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Really doesn't surprise me one bit. The cards are already stacked against you the user and no matter what these judges are bought and paid for by big corp.

Things will never change and I do see why many people were rail roaded big time. That is the USA way, all for the big boys but lets fuck over the little guys.
 
An honorable judge in this position has an ethical obligation to assign the case to another judge.
 
Hints at a conflict of interest? Hell,it screams it! That the verdict hasn't been overturned shows what a joke the " justice" system has become.
 
michael.pa2 said:
Hints at a conflict of interest? Hell,it screams it! That the verdict hasn't been overturned shows what a joke the " justice" system has become.
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Come on bro. The government is by the people, for the people. Corruption and hypocrisy doesn't happen here. As ane example of our purest roots, consider that this country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.
 
Wow....This is just so over the top in your face conflict of interest that I am just left speechless.
 
At the end of the day at the bar where all the lobbyists hang out, they're all just men and women with no real opinion, lobbying for every side (even the opposing sides) like nothing.
 
Zangmonkey said:
An honorable judge in this position has an ethical obligation to assign the case to another judge.
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the key word there being honorable. that has become a hard thing to find in the current "justice" system... at least in any case with money going around.
 
Cerulean said:
At the end of the day at the bar where all the lobbyists hang out, they're all just men and women with no real opinion, lobbying for every side (even the opposing sides) like nothing.
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Unless at the bar they're swaying people who make decisions opinion which could land them a very lucrative position once they retire from public service. Scratch my back now and I'll scratch yours later.

This case needs to be reassigned or appeal to judge who doesn't have such a giant conflict of interest.
 
osrk said:
Unless at the bar they're swaying people who make decisions opinion which could land them a very lucrative position once they retire from public service. Scratch my back now and I'll scratch yours later.

This case needs to be reassigned or appeal to judge who doesn't have such a giant conflict of interest.
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Lobbying is a career like any other. What I meant from what I said was that it isn't uncommon to find lobbyists who lobby against each other socializing with each other as good friends at the end of the day, with other lobbyists, and discussing which new companies and organizations they're being paid to lobby for, etcetera.

They're in it for the money, like any other person. A lobbyist could lobby for 15+ different companies and organizations at one time, and represent 65+. They are closest to the government physically and by influence. They represent and lobby for companies that pay them because that's their job. Most of them are lawyers (or all of them?).

You should read up on the lives of lobbyists and their career as a lobbyist.

The deeper you genuinely get into the cores of politics, the more you will find that money is the root of all corruption and evil, and more you will find that 'truth' is held rather relatively when it comes to terms of good and evil, right and wrong, and the people.

Power and influence is greatly performed and dictated by lobbyists and the mainstream medias. I am not saying though that people have zero influence whatsoever.
 
Cerulean said:
Lobbying is a career like any other. What I meant from what I said was that it isn't uncommon to find lobbyists who lobby against each other socializing with each other as good friends at the end of the day, with other lobbyists, and discussing which new companies and organizations they're being paid to lobby for, etcetera.

They're in it for the money, like any other person. A lobbyist could lobby for 15+ different companies and organizations at one time, and represent 65+. They are closest to the government physically and by influence. They represent and lobby for companies that pay them because that's their job. Most of them are lawyers (or all of them?).

You should read up on the lives of lobbyists and their career as a lobbyist.

The deeper you genuinely get into the cores of politics, the more you will find that money is the root of all corruption and evil, and more you will find that 'truth' is held rather relatively when it comes to terms of good and evil, right and wrong, and the people.

Power and influence is greatly performed and dictated by lobbyists and the mainstream medias. I am not saying though that people have zero influence whatsoever.
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I'm an attorney, and I've known a few lobbyists. Like you said, it is just a job. I've worked on cases where I believe my client to be in the wrong, but I am bound to zealously advocate for him. I don't go out after work and start talking up how great my clients are, and I generally get along with opposing counsel (there are a not insubstantial number of people in this field who are just assholes or bullies).

The problem has nothing to do with lobbying. If lobbyists are banned, that's not going to stop money being funneled in to political candidates from wealthy interests. Now that our Supreme Court thinks it is fine for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to get a candidate elected, lobbyists might not even be necessary for them to pull it off.
 
Perhaps it isn't wrong with lobbying itself. But the judge worked for and advocated for a company she now finds herself called upon to judge impartially, which could stand to make the aforementioned company a large sum of money.

Whether it was as a lobbyist or a manager of a dog food company, when that case came before the judge they had an obligation to recuse themself. Most code of ethics speak against even an APPEARANCE of a conflict of interest, much less what appears to be in this case a true conflict.
 
Maybe they should allow Jack Johnson to be a judge (or juror) in a case against videogames too!!
 
that is a plain as day conflict of interest.

He should pull himself off the case but, good luck with that.
 
Oh wow, yeah, this isn't conflict of interest

It only sidesteps a whole branch of the judicial process where copyright owners don't need to gather actual evidence before sending out letters demanding money or "Get taken to court"

Isn't this, oh right what was that word, BLACKMAIL?

When you have next to zero evidence somebody stole something, and sending them a letter saying if you don't pay up, we'll take you to court, that is -BLACKMAILING- somebody

Its amazing european legislators know that this is a scam, while in america the copyright owners have the judges in their back pocket and can get them to sign and do anything
 
Of course she was appointed by RIAA tool, Obama. If our government and justice system wasn't totally corrupt, she would be impeached for this.
 
michael.pa2 said:
Hints at a conflict of interest? Hell,it screams it! That the verdict hasn't been overturned shows what a joke the " justice" system has become.
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I couldn't have said it better. America: the land of the bought-and-paid-for.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
I couldn't have said it better. America: the land of the bought-and-paid-for.
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Yup

land of the free, as long as you do what your told...

Why do the people stand for this? do they not have the power to get people like this booted from office or something?
 
MrGuvernment said:
Yup

land of the free, as long as you do what your told...

Why do the people stand for this? do they not have the power to get people like this booted from office or something?
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Money = speech nowadays. So those without money, have no ability to "speak." And given that the bottom 60% of America owns only 0.2% of the wealth, that doesn't give them much leverage over those with very specific interests and deep pockets.
 
Katalysis said:
I'm an attorney, and I've known a few lobbyists. Like you said, it is just a job. I've worked on cases where I believe my client to be in the wrong, but I am bound to zealously advocate for him. I don't go out after work and start talking up how great my clients are, and I generally get along with opposing counsel (there are a not insubstantial number of people in this field who are just assholes or bullies).

The problem has nothing to do with lobbying. If lobbyists are banned, that's not going to stop money being funneled in to political candidates from wealthy interests. Now that our Supreme Court thinks it is fine for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to get a candidate elected, lobbyists might not even be necessary for them to pull it off.
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Thanks for giving the most concise answer that I have heard as to why there are so many lawyer jokes. It is a citizen's constitutional right to have speedy and fair trial, and we have genuine needs being a nation built on law, but it still a quandary. I think this video describes it best.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZKvuSYIykY
 
Total ethical lapse and grounds for having a judge disbarred, no?
 
MrGuvernment said:
Yup

land of the free, as long as you do what your told...

Why do the people stand for this? do they not have the power to get people like this booted from office or something?
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...Office? You must hail from planet Crack? this is corporate America. Haven't you learned to embrace greed yet.

Go big business and corporate greed. Didn't they teach you that in capitalism school!
 
I don't get why the Michael Jackson court cases weren't heard by Supreme Court Justice Peewee Herman? It seems about as reasonable fair, balanced and as impartial as this case/circumstance.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Yup

land of the free, as long as you do what your told...

Why do the people stand for this? do they not have the power to get people like this booted from office or something?
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Hey, as long as you leave me, my spouse, my kids, and family alone, give us bread, and give us circus, we'll do whatever you want! Just don't shoot us, kay? NO MAOR BLOOD!
 
WBurchnall said:
I don't get why the Michael Jackson court cases weren't heard by Supreme Court Justice Peewee Herman? It seems about as reasonable fair, balanced and as impartial as this case/circumstance.
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Ooh, I thought people LOVED him for his music.

It's such an irony that when Michael Jackson's birthday comes around, or when he died, everyone was all boohoo over his death. He's a pedophile and yet society worships him?
 
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