sound off — from YOU!

Over the last few days, we’ve received dozens — if not hundreds — of letters and notes of support (and some not!).  We’d like to take a moment and give you all credit and thanks.  Below are just a few of the e-mails we received today.

Today, we also raised more money than we have ever before in a single day–  around $200.

Keep the notes coming.  Your votes of confidence mean the world to our team.

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To all the people who support JFB I wish you luck in this upcoming case. You will be setting the standard for the legal battles about technology, piracy and copyright for the next hundred years. The effort put forth by this student driven legal team is going to set the bar higher and higher for the future defenders of the Constitution and the American people. I hope the legalities of this proceeding will prevail in the favor of Joel and make sure corporate giants do not bully around the small guy anymore. Yes, copyright laws are important but Joel did not make money or try to push the music as his own. Everyone who owns an ipod,mp3 player,or any other form of storage device should be behind him because the excessive damages were no where near the amount asked for by the RIAA. Gene Simmons of KISS was on a show mentioning how rock and roll has gone down the tubes because of the internet and the music sharing that goes on. Well blame the music industry. Blame the recording companies who charge $30 for a cd and give the artists $2 of it. Joel, you have my support, and the legal team, you definitely have mine as well. To quote the great B.B King, “I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.”

Sincerely, with much love and support

Mark

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Several years ago I learnt “the law” is not about justice, but the right result for the client.

The Bhopal disaster, where a Union Carbide subsidiary killed and poisoned thousands, is a case in point.  Barely a penny has reached those affected.  Lawyers worked feverishly to protect their client, blind to the needs of the poor of India’s slums.  The PR team advised UC to “rebrand”.  Still people suffer.

In Britain it was an offence - sometimes punishable by death - to read the mass in anything other than Latin.  IN recent times Archbishop Lefebvre incurred the Vatican’s wrath for doing just that.

We are taught in Britain that the Magna Carta and “habeus corpus” guarantees our freedom and liberty whilst the Government erodes perceived “rights” (we have no written constitution and therefore no constitutional guarantee of rights such as free speech or the right to arm bears) with 28 day detention without trial, rendition and blanket bans on the right to protest.

You are taught that your constitution guarantees your freedoms.  Written after you gained independence from us, it still failed to end discrimination or enshrine basic rights for the ordinary citizen.

There is no justice for those on a modest income.  Only the rich can afford lawyers, a polite form of bullying.  Joel Bakan’s “Corporation” illustrates the Faustian pact that lawyers have to make.  They will buy you a root beer, take your kids to baseball and enquire after your Mother’s health at weekends.  On Monday morning those same people will do all they can to allow an unthinking unfeeling behemoth trample over your life, liberty and freedom to enjoy happiness.

Every now and then someone stands up to them.  We had the McLibel 2, who lost the case but beat McDonalds.  I hope and pray that you join that pantheon of David’s who slay the corporate goliaths.  They are the new nation state, but with no elected mandate and no “recall vote” they are a far bigger threat to democracy than the so called axis of terror.

From London, England I wish you luck.

– Paul Canal

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Dear Joel

I just read about your case and wanted to wish you the very best.

Carl

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I’ve already taken up too much of your time, but I wanted to share my thoughts, and send you some dough, and more than anything else, to tell you how much I appreciate all of you fighting against the bizarre and punitive actions of the RIAA, and for the direction of future copyright law onto a sensible, instead of insane, path. Good luck today, to all of you and especially to Joel.

Go get ‘em.

Sincerely,

Lars Olsson

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good luck!
if theres anything i can do to support you let me know

Regards,
Sascha

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Joel I wish you luck. I’m still confused why the music industry is pursuing this line of threatening behavior. In the past I have purchased CD’s and passed them around for others to copy, once the ipod came along I no longer purchased cd’s instead I look for free downloads and listen to my old music. It appears to me that the music industry doesn’t see themselves in the same way as the book industry. If I purchase a book, I can give it away, loan it out and in some cases I’ve copied segments of the book and handed them out to friends. Its my book.

I would think that rather than alienate their customers the music would turn to their customers and ask for other options (can we say netflix, kindle, pandora, seeqpod, etc).

If you lose, and I hope you don’t, I WILL NEVER purchase another song from itunes or any other site. Screw the industry and their pitiful attempts at bringing 1984 scare tactics into this century.

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Good luck Joel, I saw your article on the Guardian website. I am a budding lawyer from London, England and I hope one day I will be able to help someone as Professor Nesson is helping you. Best wishes, Chloe. 

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Best of luck to you in your struggle. I hope that after you win, you’ll have grounds to file a counterclaim against them.

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Scare tactics, making and example out of the unfortunate few. I used to personally oppose the idea of file sharing, but I’ve changed my views on that after seeing how the recording industry is dealing with it. The people running these record companies are crooks, themselves, and deserve every kick to the balls that can be delivered.
They’re trash, imo.

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I got a similar threat from the RIAA demanding money for copyright infringement.  I Called their number and told them to sod off, and that if they even thought about sending anyone to my house the individual would be detained and tortured…  I have since stopped receiving threats from them

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I am an artist and a writer. I have paid a lot of money, and three people have spent a year of their lives working on a book that I wrote: 2 illustrators and my own time. The thought that someone could simply and easily steal it, scan it, and freely distribute it to the world once i published it to the extent that I never see a return for my investment bothers me. The RIAA isn’t just persecuting you for their own interests, but also for mine, as an artist. i could never afford to go after someone for doing that to me or any other copyright holder. So, in my own mind, the RIAA are doing the right thing here, the heroic thing. i thank them for their efforts behind this expensive campaign of theirs to make people around the world become responsible and stop the rampant piracy.

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I truly hope things go well.
Millions of us have done and are still doing what you’ve done. This case will not stop the media revolution that has happened because of the internet.
I only hope our backwards legal system can adapt quickly enough to recognise this.

Joran

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I just found out about your website and wanted to emphasize my wishes for the best of luck with the case. I emphasize luck should only be needed in regards to the integrity of those reviewing your case and not in the aspect that you should even need luck in your stance to win this obviously ridiculous case.

Thanks so much for fighting for us.

This isn’t just a fight for you, but for all of us little people that don’t have a chance when big business decides to bully us around over menial distribution of intellectual property.

I am going to mention this case to freepress.org (as I’m sure it has already been) in hopes to educate everyone on what you are going through.

Thanks so much,

Keith

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.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } “Fight back against Goliath???”  Well when you steal from Goliath, he pretty much has a right to use the court system to get his property back.

Good Luck.

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The music industry is an industry that makes money off of other peoples talents and gifts. I am speaking as an aspiring muisc executive. Yes, money is viable to keep any business afloat. But, what do you do when you pay good money for a product and the product is garbage? Understand that the popularity of “illegally downloading” on skyrocketed when the music industry went from selling singles from an album at about 99 cents per single to no longer selling singles but using singles to push album sales. Let’s be honest, most CD’s have one or two hot songs on them and the rest of the songs on the CD are trash. In addition record stores are becoming scarce at best. To add insult to any music lovers heart the price of CD’s have went from $11.99 to $18.98. Let me ask you, with the type of music being played on the radio today would you pay $18.98 for a CD that only have a few good songs on them?

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Thank you for taking a stand and fighting back! What the media companies are doing is terrible and copyright laws have been getting increasingly restrictive for many many years. It’s time to stop this nonsense. The judgments have been completely unconstitutional and it’s time for the pendulum to swing back into the favor or the people.

-Bryan

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I can’t think of much to say right now; words escape me due to the sheer idiocy and unfairness of this case against you.  What I can say though is this: good luck.  Show these companies that one person really can make a difference against multinational corporations, a.k.a. “bullies” such as these pathetic people attempting to sue you for millions for something so petty.

For the consumer!

Best wishes,

Nik, UK.

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I have to say that I feel what they are doing is wrong and the courts are only supporting them. I personally hope they do this to someone mentally unstable like Theodore Kaczynski.

I wish you luck

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