evidence

QUESTION 1

This is evidence that law school may teach you what process is, but not how it is used. Or if it is used.

This is evidence of the flexibility of judges. Evidence of the flexibility of rules.

I have embraced Vinny. I imagined a conversation between you, your students, Judge Gertner, and Mona Lisa Vito. It was, in Judge Gertner’s words, a “moment of informality.” Is Lisa describing a deer being shot in the woods? Or is she lecturing about this procedure? The request to record this moment stems from your mission. It is what this case is about. It may not be something we can learn in law school.

Evidence is what you make of it. Context can change its impact. Maybe context can change its truth.

Of what is this evidence?

QUESTION 2

RIAA’s Best Case against Joel

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.”
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

From the mind of the RIAA:

We must know our strengths, and Joel’s strengths, to win. Another lesson from Sun Tzu is that positioning is critical. We cannot let Joel be the “victim.” We must position ourselves as the victims. Perception is key. We cannot let the jury – or the judge, or the public at large – see this as “Joel fighting back.” It must be the RIAA fighting back, because Joel started this mess by downloading songs he didn’t have a right to. We, the RIAA, are just fighting back using the means granted us by congress.

We must let the evidence speak on our behalf. There is evidence connecting Joel to songs which were downloaded. He did not pay for these songs. They are not his. If we show this to the jury, we can win our case. Let the evidence speak (or speak for the evidence) [snip].

KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Connect Joel to the IP address, or the account which downloaded these songs, or the computer that stored them. Focus on those things we can prove. We have to maintain our position as the wronged party – don’t let Joel maneuver around this.

We have to keep the jury’s focus on what matters for our case – the actual evidence of Joel downloading.

We “know ourselves” – we know that the evidence of the downloads favors us. We “know our enemy” – Joel will try to make this case about other things; he will harp on that which we cannot prove. He may use his soapbox to obfuscate the issues, but we will focus on our evidence and stay true to our position. If we know ourselves and know Joel’s interests, we can win the battle without danger.