Earlier this week, I posted an editorial about how I was getting bored with the suit counter-suit thing regarding the RIAA. This case, delayed, hopefully due to good legal fear, is far from that. The suit involving Tenenbaum is shaping up like a Perry Mason episode.

It is the list of defense witnesses that is making look so. Some bloggers are referring to it as a "Dream Team". Maybe the RIAA should have stuck with college students and dead people?

First on the list is Grateful Dead Songwriter, John Perry Barlow. Folks he is not there because of his lyrical capability. He has a very interesting history to him and here is a relevant tidbit from his Wikipedia Page:

Barlow currently serves as vice-chairman of the EFF’s board of directors. The EFF was designed to mediate the "inevitable conflicts [that] have begun to occur on the border between Cyberspace and the physical world." They were trying to build a legal wall that would separate and protect the Internet from territorial government, and especially from the U.S. government.

If you read over his Wikipedia page you will find out other good reasons for him to be on your side. Such as being a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. I am only going to give brief tidbits here. Follow the links to learn more and, if you think I should have said something I didn’t, leave a comment.

Next there is, Prof. Johan Pouwelse as an expert witness. He has done this before. If you have heard that the RIAA expert witness was debunked, it was, at least partially, this man’s testimony that did it.

Folks it only gets better, Prof. Lawrence Lessig is next on the list. I think if there were to be a most known in this group he would be the one. This author, professor and lawyer is a well known "free culture" advocate. You can learn much about him over at Wikipedia and his website. You can check out his short bio and get a good impression of what this man is involved in. Mr. Lessig is advocate of Creative Commons (the license he used for his last book), EFF (former Board Member) and, more recently, Change Congress.

Let me summarize Mr. Lessig’s presence in this trial. He is competent, an expert, articulate, respected and, in short, does and should strike fear into the RIAA. Logical, competent argument is a great way to defeat rhetoric. The legal focus of the RIAA has been to sue as many as possible with weak technical and legal arguments. They wanted to do it before the legal system and public had ammunition for a defense. In my humble opinion, Mr. Lessig is part of a "testimony team" more than capable of disarming and debunking the RIAA.

Moving on to the next person on the list, Matthew Oppenheim who is formerly the Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America. Is this guy the one who will break down in tears and confesses to torturing college students? Honestly, I am not 100 % how he is on the RIAA at this point in time. He left the RIAA in 2004 and the law firm that he worked for in 2006. Mr. Oppenheim was the sole attorney in the case of Arista v. Does 1-19 in the District of Columbia.

More seriously though if you wish to get a feel for both sides of the story on this issue read Copyright Conundrum, although written a few years back, this Q & A article lets last two individuals mentioned field answers on copyright.

Others on the list, although not as well known (if one can even make such a distinction at this level of recognition) are Prof. Terry Fisher who is author of "Promises to Keep" and a Harvard Law Professor, Prof. Wendy Seltzer a Staff Attorney for the EFF, Prof. John Palfrey of The Berkman Center at Harvard and Andrew Grant a former antipiracy expert at MacroVision.

Of those list in the last paragraph, I found what Mr. Grant has to say rather interesting. Another thing that strikes me as a follower of this whole RIAA ordeal is the number of members who are from Harvard. I have, as have others, noticed that the RIAA has not seemed to ever target Harvard. Would have anything to do with a wealth of legal resources and knowledge to defend one’s self with? Trust me folks if more community colleges had dorms, they would have been the first targets after the drift net tactics. The RIAA strategy is to make the ones they accuse (in my opinion usually falsely and lacking evidence) simply submit. The RIAA is not interested in winning in court because I am certain they are well aware they can’t. Folks this is going to be a good one and I hear it is open to the public. I am ready to pop some popcorn and follow it closely.