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 Lunatics were right on when they predicted the growth of online stores selling MP3s. Seems now the telecoms like Verizon want a piece of the action, and they have partnered up with Rhapsody. Is this the new reality, all the music that you can purchase, is available over your cell phone? What a cool brave new world.

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?

Boy, the Lunatics think, they hit the nail right on the head when Nelson Doyle said: “This website offers every music genre under-the-sun, and then some.”

It’s always gratifying to be recognized. What an nice, unexpected compliment.

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?

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 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.

With the major labels’ business model failing, the Lunatics wonder… Why not encourage, monitor, and then meter anyone who can grow music interest on the WWW? Instead, these heavy-handed major labels want to drag any popular music idea that they don’t own into the purgatory of extinction, right alongside of them.

The Lunatics are sure if you haven’t heard of Project Playlist before this, you’ll know about them before this lawsuit is over. The immediate backlash of free publicity for Project Playlist coupled with the proliferation of more anti-RIAA feelings just doesn’t seem to justify this effort.

With that said, The Lunatics see a developing trend in the RIAA 2.0: sue the innovators – not the public – directly. EMI has already sued MP3Tunes. Who’s next?

The Lunatics have always wondered, what qualified this coffee retailer to be a music company? Did they really think they could succeed in this complex business because they had some available counter space for their point of purchase CDs? The Lunatics always found these bogus repackages of out takes and re-records of established artists embarrassing and painful.