I was following up on exsimo2’s Daily Kos diary on the pressure tactics the RIAA has been using against the soccer mom who fought back, and I realized there are some horrifying implications for privacy. This destruction of privacy has the power to reach out and touch YOU and YOUR FAMILY, since the strategy involved can be used by any large organization with a raft of lawyers and a PR team. This strategy hinges on the fact that it’s too expensive for regular people to defend themselves, and the press and the court system have been actively helping corporations succeed in this mode of attack.

First, read these two articles about how the RIAA told the press about a new lawsuits against the Defendant’s children before they even served the papers: press manipulation and gathering private info. The Press Manipulation article explains why the RIAA would go through the trouble and expense of filing a fake lawsuit for PR purposes:

Is the supposed court document the RIAA leaked to the media no more than blatant flim-flam - a way to once again manipulate mainstream reporters to act as Big Four threat bearers to intimidate defendants before they’ve been anywhere near a court?

And does it also mean that, having served its purpose to publicly harrass and humiliate the defendants in the on- and offline print and electronic media, it need never be submitted to a court?

The article, however, does not cover the Privacy loophole. And I want to make sure that every individual with an interest in preserving the U.S. as a country built on civil rights understands the danger here.

When someone files a lawsuit, the name of the person sued becomes part of the public record. That means that the press , which may have previously been respecting someone’s wish to remain anonymous, is now free to publish the names of anyone involved. The lawsuit can be filed for any bogus reason, and the victim will be followed around forever by Googleable headlines that say something like, “Jane Smith Sued For Heinous Act.”

Let me repeat: the victim of this PR strategy hasn’t necessarily done anything illegal. They may have just been making anonymous complaints about customer service in Internet forums. There is nothing stopping an organization from filing a lawsuit against you or your family, and it may be worth the money for them to do it if they think you’re a thorn in their side and they calculate that you don’t have the resources to defend yourself. Hey, if they make the accusation heinous enough, no pro bono lawyer or political representative will help you because they don’t want to be caught up in bad press. They may even actively help the company if the accusation relates to one of their hot button issues, and they know soapboxing will get the media’s attention.

There have now been successful precedents - companies KNOW this tactic will work if they strike quickly.

You may wonder how the company gets a person’s name if they’ve acted anonymously. Well, the Hewlett-Packard situation has shown the lengths corporate investigators are willing to go. However, if you file a complaint with a federal agency about a company, they might give your name to the company as part of their investigation process. Or the company just might pick a name from a list of malcontents and guess.

Companies can file a lawsuit against any person for any reason. YOU can be NAMED and SMEARED all over the press and the Internet just because the accusation itself makes a good story. And if the victim can’t afford an attorney, they might actually end up going through months of court process, at their own expense, because Judges apparently don’t yet get the fact the court system is being used this way.  

The thing people have to realize is that this tactic isn’t limited to the RIAA. The RIAA may have even taken their cue from other corporations who have successfully used the lawsuit-as-PR-tactic to discredit whistleblowers.

This privacy loophole must be closed and soon, because it’s a form of domestic terrorism wielded by corporations and a major stepping stone toward a fascist state.