patchmonkey.net

Recording Industry vs The People

The lawyers representing Patricia Santangelo, who is the first RIAA defendant to refuse to settle, have set up a blog detailing the events of the case:

We are lawyers in New York City. We practice law at Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.

Through the Electronic Frontier Foundation we and our firm have undertaken to represent people in our area who have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for having computers whose internet accounts were used to open up peer-to-peer file sharing accounts.

We find these cases to be oppressive and unfair, as large law firms financed by the recording industry sue ordinary working people for thousands of dollars.

We have set up this blog in order to collect evidence and input about these oppressive lawsuits.

This is an update to add a lot of law students and blawgin’ lawyers to my roll. Most of them I’ve culled from RSS feeds that I read, and several have been sites I read normally.

Over on BusyDays, abusygirl discusses how March of the Penguins relates to law school. I suppose I agree - she’s barely a 1L and she’s already noticed it. There are a few differences between lawyers and penguins that I noticed while watching the film:

• Penguins dress better than law students on days when law students do not have interviews.
• Penguins gather around in large groups to fend off the cold, law students drink lots of coffee.
• If a penguin fails the exam, they lose the egg. If a law student fails an exam, they cry.
• Penguins live near the South Pole. Law students live anywhere but the South Pole.
• Penguins have bills, law students seek billable hours.
• Very few law students have to worry about being eaten by ferocious larger mammals.

Hopefully that clears up some misconceptions.

Summer has gone well. Classes start tomorrow, along with all the fun that entails. I’m actually excited to be starting class again - it’s hard to describe, but I suppose it stems from wanting to learn so that one day I can hopefully apply what I know.

To incoming 1Ls who might stumble across this blog, I only have two pieces of advice. First, the most important thing to do in your first year is to work hard and, in doing so, succeed. Second, just because you’re learning how to think, don’t forget how to feel. This might sound easy, but it isn’t - it’s very hard to balance working hard with not losing sight of what you love and happiness you possess.

Game on!