RIAA may get a slapdown in Maine

[mainegreen]

Maine Judge Accuses RIAA of ‘Gamesmanship’
Source 1
Source 2
<...>a Maine Judge Magistrate accuses RIAA of ‘gamesmanship’:

"These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined.’ She noted that once the RIAA dismisses its ‘John Doe’ case it does not thereafter join the defendants when it sues them in their real names."

While magistrate judge Margaret Kravchuk did not go so far as to recommend dismissing the lawsuit, she did suggest to the presiding judge in the case that the RIAA attorneys be sanctioned under Rule 11 for their gamesmanship. “Suppose,” she writes, “instead of university students, the record companies chose to target all individuals within the District of Maine who had used these P2P services and had TimeWarner Cable for their ISP.”

... more at links:
Source 1
Source 2

In depth discussion at SlashDot as well!

My, my, this IS interesting news in our neck of the woods. I've got to say, I agree with the judge.