E-Commerce Law: E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 29, 2007

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of January 29, 2007

The brother of the 20-year woman ordered to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $30,750 for pirating copyrighted music has "accused the recording industry on Tuesday of violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats." In court papers filed in another music piracy suit filed against him by the RIAA, the 16-year boy "claims that the record companies, which have filed more than 18,000 piracy lawsuits in federal courts, ‘have engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United States.’ His papers also "allege that the companies, ‘ostensibly competitors in the recording industry, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and public policy’ by bringing the piracy cases jointly and using the same agency ‘to make extortionate threats ... to force defendants to pay.’" An RIAA suit against the boy’s mother was dropped in December.

(Teen accuses record companies of collusion at SilliconValley.com)

On the heels of our post about courts citing to Mapquest, we discovered a New York Times article describing how courts are increasingly citing to collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia as authority. Obviously, the collaborative nature of Wikipedia makes it particularly susceptible to inaccuracy, whether accidental or purposeful. Accordingly, it may not be appropriate to cite to the site except as to facts which are not core to the issue being decided or under circumstances in which its reliability is not challenged.

(Courts Turn to Wikipedia, but Selectively at NYTimes.com)

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.