Lory Lybeck, who claims to dislike arrogant bullies has just knocked a big bully down a peg or two. The RIAA is reeling. Lybeck, the lawyer who defended Tanya Anderson, has been awarded $103,175.00 of the RIAA’s money for his legal efforts.

The RIAA, if you remember, had sent investigators to Tanya’s daughter’s elementary school to squeeze the 3rd grader for information about her mother’s alleged downloading abuses. These heavy handed tactics have backfired just as the Lunatics predicted, and now the “litigation crazed” RIAA is going to pay for Lory and Tanya to sue them some more.

This time the stakes are higher, Lory and Tanya are asking for over 5 million dollars in damages for malicious prosecution. Plus they’re going to try to give it “class action status.” We all know, there’s plenty of people in that boat. Tanya isn’t the only innocent person the RIAA has wronged.

The Lunatics find ourselves feeling about the same as Jon Newton, who’s covered Tanya’s story for p2pnet.net from the beginning:

“How four, multi-billion-dollar, international corporate record labels have been able to get away with this in the so-called democratic United States of America is beyond belief.”

The Major labels are going headless. As market share drops, more upper level corporate heads keep rolling.

A few weeks ago “The Ten Million Dollar Man,” Clive Davis got put out to pasture on the Sony/BMG ranch. Now, it’s Lee Trink at Capital/Virgin Records, who’s resigning.

Next it’s going to be his boss, Jason Flom.

In today’s record landscape, if your current market share is shrinking, it’s either lose the big salaries, or close the office. There is no more salaried employees to lay off.

Yo, Guy Hands, what’s next? Selling EMI’s recorded music catalogue if Coldplay’s CD stiffs?

Just as the Lunatics predicted, the RIAA’s lawsuits are starting to backfire. The recording industry’s legal strategy of suing their fans has received several legal setbacks this week.

First, a federal magistrate is recommending that Tanya Andersen be awarded $108,000 in legal fees. This recommendation made yesterday in Oregon by Magistrate John Acosta has the RIAA paying Tanya’s attorney, Lory Lybeck. Now with her fees being paid by the record companies, Andersen’s attorney is going to continue her class action lawsuit on behalf of all the other people the RIAA has sued.

And in an another case, Capitol v. Thomas, District Judge Michael J. Davis has “sua sponte” issued an order stating that he believes he may have committed a “manifest error of law” by giving an incorrect jury instruction. The instruction that accepted the RIAA’s “making available” theory had been debunked in another court earlier in this year. That means the RIAA’s legal eagles kept the judge out in the cold.

Deceiving our country’s courts is not in keeping with the “American Way,” but then again, none of the Big Four RIAA companies are owned by Americans. Why should they care?

Yes, it’s true. The Paul McCartney CD that was on sale at the Starbucks counter (Memory Almost Full) is going to be given away this Sunday by the London Daily Mail.

What does this say about the pop music scene? Well… one of the largest recording artists of modern times is now relegated to coffee counters and fish wrap. The Lunatics are happy for Sir Paul. It’s obvious his audience is literate. Plus, the Lunatics know following Prince’s footsteps is always smart.

Mitch, I read your speech, and I still don’t trust you.

Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol sounded sooo intelligent till he got to the part about “with respect for order.” He continues: “It means having an online environment that encourages innovation for legitimate commerce and social discourse and at the same time also has appropriate deterrents for online theft and other illegal behavior.” He just never says who was going decide what’s innovative, or what’s legitimate, or what appropriate deterrents are.

I just know one thing , I won’t ever want him or his RIAA cartel to be involved in those decisions. Along with his henchmen MediaSentry, the RIAA violates privacy laws and prosecutes innocent people in the name of stamping out piracy.

Yo Mitch, how do you spell hypocrite?

The decision yesterday in the Atlantic v. Howell case solidly put the nail in the coffin of the RIAA’s “making available” theory. The RIAA lawyers and their bullyboys, MediaSentry, used this theory to prosecute people who ripped CDs they bought and then stored their music in their own computer.

The Lunatics have been following this case closely, and were concerned by early decisions. The Howells have served as their own defense counsel, and the EFF wrote a masterful Amicus brief to The Honorable Judge Neil V. Wake. Judge Neil saw the light, and denied the RIAA’s motion for summary judgement.

The Lunatics applaud this sanity.

Rather than remain on the sidelines as constant critics of the current music scene, Brian and I have spearheaded the MP3 Lunatics’ decision to form a music label.

It’s called Fun Fun Fun Recordings.

Why would the Lunatics start a music company now?

Because:

• There’s more great music than ever before
• There are more ways to create and listen to music than ever before
• There are more ways to buy music than ever before

Click here to listen to a track from our first CD.

As predicted by the Lunatics, the wholesale suing of fans would eventually backfire and put the major labels under legal scrutiny.

At question Is the “Big Four’s” ( EMI, WMG, SonyBMG, and UMG) use of MediaSentry. These digital bounty hunters have already been discredited in Holland and Canada and now the U.S. courts are agreeing. First, US Magistrate Judge Donald C. Ashmanskas has awarded Tanya Andersen her attorney fees. By granting this, the judge determined the RIAA lacked “the prima facie evidence to support the claims of infringement.” And now Judge Ashmanskas has barred further motions to dismiss Tanya’s malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA.

The trade association (cartel) can’t run and hide from this suit, and Lory Lybeck – Tanya’s attorney – has extended it into a class action suit (meaning the RIAA will have to face the music from all the the people they have spied on, sued, settled with, or walked away from). The Lunatics know you can’t sue people with flimsy pretenses and get away with it.

“I’d love to know what kind of bounty MediaSentry got paid to supply erroneous identities to the RIAA,” Lybeck says. The Lunatics wonder if the RIAA’s legal war on downloading is more or less effective than our country’s war on drugs?

The Lunatics are amazed by the counter-productive behavior major labels have been using to sell their music. It’s no wonder music has been suffering for so long. As the recent purchaser of EMI Guy Hands discovered, the music company was not functioning like any other business he’d ever seen.

First he discovered the $400,000 in the budget for office flowers was just a beard for the hookers and blow budget. The Lunatics wonder how many CDs you have to sell to make this marketing approach profitable? Were all the artists at EMI music given this marketing surge? Is that why Paul McCartney is so upset?

Then our boy Guy intelligently questioned what the RIAA did for EMI other than suing his company’s customers for the $132,000,000 EMI contributes each year.

And now Guy finds out 1,000,000 EMI CDs are paving Chinese highways.

It’s no wonder the major labels are going broke. How much longer can hookers and blow, the cartel mentality, and wasteful over manufacturing dominate our music scene? The MP3 Lunatics understand why there’s no good music these days. The record companies have abandoned music in favor of dubious business practices.

Yo Hands… can one Guy straighten this out? Good Luck.

The Asylum is still growing. Welcome Napster, our first MP3 champion. You are now our first MP3 Lunatic reversion.

We all remember 1999 when this P2P caught fire and turned the conventional music business into the “MP3 lynch mob.” In 2000, BMG pulled a surprise move and bought the fledgling company, front cutting the other major record labels. While BMG and Napster creator Shawn Fanning were still all smiles, the “not included” RIAA brethren got a paralyzing injunction from Judge Patel. BMG then swallowed Napster whole. The acquisition turned into a disaster. The geek culture, the music biz types, and venture capitalists couldn’t stand each other. So after ruining the P2P, BMG sells Napster to Roxio. Roxio relaunches Napster. They choose a DRM schema, Pressplay, to create a music subscription model.

Now in yet another 180 reversal, Napster returns to it’s MP3 Lunatic status. Napster’s CEO Chris Gorog has announced the company has returned to the MP3 format for their music sales. The MP3 Lunatics welcome you back Napster, and we note what a long strange trip it’s been.

The Lunatics wonder… what if the record companies didn’t panic and sue Napster? Would their businesses be much healthier charging Napster users instead of suing them?