RIAA Faces First Class Action Lawsuit
Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:13PM EDT
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After years of suing grandmothers, children, and the deceased, the RIAA is finally facing some payback for its inane approach to increasing its revenues: Disabled mother Tanya Andersen is launching the first class action lawsuit against the RIAA and the Big 4 record labels for a variety of causes, ranging from negligence and fraud to intentional infliction of emotional distress and RICO racketeering violations.
Given that the RIAA has sued roughly 30,000 people to date, it's hard not to imagine she'll find some takers who want to hop aboard the bandwagon and put an end to the group's often malicious and always tragically misguided lawsuits.
Andersen is one of the few people who have gotten into a courtroom with the RIAA (most of those sued have settled). After a two-year battle, the case against her and her eight-year-old daughter (at the time of the filing) was recently dismissed. Her counterclaims have been ongoing, but her class action suit is a new addition to the mix.
In an unrelated case, another RIAA lawsuit defendant, Michelle Santangelo, is suing AOL and a family friend: She was targeted by the RIAA, she says, for KaZaA software that the friend installed without her knowledge. But she's also holding AOL accountable, saying it should have filtered any potentially illegal traffic from going over its network. Interesting case, though probably not one she'll win; I'm sure AOL's terms of service note that it does not filter traffic, no matter what you're doing.
Regardless, it's nice to see some of the victims of these lawsuits striking back. The RIAA has had free rein in the legal system for far too long, and it's time it started defending its actions instead of just being left alone to make accusations through its freewheeling, strong-arm tactics. Go Tanya!
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2 Posted by cnull on Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:52PM EDT Report Abuse
Thanks Ed - I hadn't heard of Ncomputing!
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3 Posted by pocketdoom on Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:11AM EDT Report Abuse
So in an old job we had dumb terminals. That was where you had the terminal with the keyboard running software off of a main computer in the back. With the advances in technology, we are not able to do something that we could do 20 years ago. I find that deplorable.
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4 Posted by polkfb on Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:39PM EDT Report Abuse
how do you hook up 2 computes together,so you can transfur..one to the 2 one .whith one monitor/keyboard/mouse
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5 Posted by commorancy on Mon Apr 2, 2007 8:17AM EDT Report Abuse
Linux (as a UNIX variant) is a fully multitasking and, more importantly, a fully multiple simultaneous user operating system. So, yes, it's very easy (with the right amount of hardware) to set up multiple completely separate interfaces to the same computer with Linux (or any UNIX). This feature has been available for years and years as a built-in standard. Once set up, all apps should work within each session properly unless the application has been designed specifically not to. Windows, on the other hand, has been primarily designed as a single user desktop system. Yes, if you buy Server edition, you can set up terminal services and remote into the server as a multiuser. But, this requires buying the expensive ($800 or more) Server edition of the Windows operating system and having two other computers/terminal services clients, in addition to the server. That means buying a server and at least two thin client computers or two full-fledged computers to run terminal services client. With the ncomputing device (a third party product) that was mentioned above, this may also be a terminal services client or thin client. This may also require a windows Server edition to function properly. Keep in mind that Windows' userspace isn't always 100% separate from other users and many applications are not designed to work in a multiuser framework. So, you may find some very simple applications that won't work under Terminal Services. Microsoft has never really focused Windows to become an optimal multiuser system. It's just not that lucrative. It's more lucrative to get people to buy a bunch of individual computers (and OS licenses) than buying one license and having multiple people share that same computer. Time shared computing has its places (especially in labs or where space/heat is a factor). But, Windows has not really taken the plunge to do multiuser effectively and properly. Of course, third party companies like Citrix and Ncomputing have found niches in providing a somewhat workable solution. But, you'll still be at the mercy of the Windows OS lack of full multiuser support and, thus, you are likely to constantly bump your head against it (even using products like ncomputing).
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1 Posted by ed_garcia_jr on Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:11PM EDT Report Abuse
Ncomputing (found at ncomputing dot com) sells a few devices that can share one computer with multiple people. It sells for under $200 (I got mine from ebay for around $130). The advantage to using a solution like this is 1. Power is only 5 watts for the device 2. You just have to maintain 1 pc and the software to that (and then share the software amongst multiple people). You still have to follow the software license agreements for multiple uses. 3. You can hook up to 30 monitor/keyboard/mouse to 1 pc -- up to 30 users. 4. I have the ethernet version, so no extra hardware needs to be attached to the pc. Plus, I have the base station hooked up to the pc via wireless (wireless router + wireless ethernet adapter), so I can have the station in a different room.