RIAA: Critics are vexatious

It turns out that the RIAA does manage to make its rotten image find some new level of tarnish to add to itself. They've now attempted to have Ray Beckerman branded a vexatious litigator. Beckerman blogs at the Recording Industry Versus The People site, which records the progress of defences against RIAA lawsuits:

The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation's few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, "has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs," the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. "Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions."

In other words, because Beckerman criticises the RIAA, that means he can't be trusted to bring actions against the RIAA. In the RIAA's ideal world, then, only people who agreed with them would be allowed to take them to court.

It's fair enough - providing the "filesharers" the labels pursue can use the same rules and thus have the RIAA barred from bringing actions.

[Thanks to Gareth J]