Sony had acquired several MP3 music downloads sites and merged them together under Sony Music. They are prepared to charge users of this website after they introduced their MP3 players.
But Sony had forgotten something important. The websites they acquired had been doing illegal downloads!
“Heitaro Nakajima, do you know that the consumers, who had bought your MP3 players, had been downloading music illegally?”
Heitaro Nakajima’s lawyer stood up and replied slowly. “Plaintiff lawyer, I have a question for you. Have you thrown away a glass bottle of soft drink or a wine bottle before?”
“Of course. Why are you asking? I had thrown it into the rubbish bin!” The plaintiff lawyer replied carefully.
“This report states that someone had used a thrown soft drink bottle as a weapon for murder. Can I assume that you have the intention of providing weapons to criminals?”
“You are talking rubbish. How would I know that the glass bottle will be used as a weapon by criminals?”
“Then, how do we know the people who bought our MP3 players will use it to download songs illegally?” Heitaro Nakajima’s lawyer retorted.
“Your honor, members of the jury, I admit websites are providing illegal downloads of MP3 music online, but I had already reported all of them. Aiwa has a website that provides one-month legal music downloads for our customers who had bought our MP3 players. We had bought and own the rights of all the songs on our website.”
“We had done our best on intellectual property protection. On the contrary, the Recording Industry Association of America was exposed to have sold the works of another music company without authorization. Please take note of this.”
The Recording Industry Association of America’s lawyers were dumbfounded. They quickly reorganized their rebuttal and start attacking again.
But their rebuttals are useless, as the jury is more inclined towards Aiwa. The lawsuit was far-fetched in the first place, and Aiwa’s lawyer had pointed out the ones responsible for the illegal downloads. If the Recording Industry Association of America still insisted on their case, it will show they have other motives!
“What’s wrong? You all cannot find the people behind those illegal downloads’ websites?! As a responsible company that supports intellectual property rights protection, we will provide some assistance to you. These websites had previously offered illegal downloads of music and were acquired by a company recently. We are also trying to fight piracy.”
Aiwa’s lawyer submitted a document to the court, and the judge looks at the jury.
The judge called for an adjournment, and the jury entered a room to discuss the verdict.
Half an hour later, the jury decided.
“The jury finds Aiwa not guilty of the charges made by the Recording Industry Association of America!”
Heitaro Nakajima and his lawyers sat there calmly and did not celebrate. They had known this outcome a long time ago and had never thought they would lose.
……
“Mr. Heitaro, what do you have to say about the verdict?”
“Mr. Heitaro, you had said that you will sue the Recording Industry Association of America for damages of 100 million USD. Is it true?”
“Mr. Heitaro, why I don’t see any happiness on your face after you all had won?”
Reporters had surrounded Heitaro Nakajima again outside of the courts. This time, the reporters are not arranged by Kameda Masao.
Many people are watching this lawsuit closely, and naturally, the media will want to report on this.
“The jury had found us not guilty as what we expected. We are not guilty in the first place, and what’s there to feel happy? As for suing the Recording Industry Association of America… I had discussed with my lawyers, and they felt asking 100 million USD is not suitable.” Heitaro Nakajima replied calmly.
“How much damages are you all going to ask for? 1 million USD? 10 million USD?” A reporter thought to himself. ‘You all realized that the compensation you all are asking for is too high?’
“No… We are suing them for 1 billion USD damages!”
Huh?!
The reporters gasped in shock. 1 billion USD will be the highest lawsuit this year, and one of the top ten lawsuits in history.
On the other side, the representative of the Recording Industry Association of America overheard the amount Aiwa was suing them for and thought he had heard wrongly. Is Aiwa crazy? On what grounds can they sue for such high compensations? The court will not entertain them.
But at this moment, the representative of the Recording Industry Association of America must divert the media’s attention.
“We, the Recording Industry Association of America, will sue those websites that provide illegal MP3 music downloads. We have a list of these websites, and we will sue them based on the downloads. We estimate the damages will not be lesser than 100 million USD!”
Wow….
The reporters were stunned by what the representative said. Those websites are going to be in trouble.
……
“Chairman, we are being sued!”
Norio Ohga was reading a document when his assistant barged into his office. He looked at his assistant angrily. “What’s wrong?! Why are you panicking?! I had told you many times not to behave this way!”
Norio Ohga had not heard what his assistant shouted earlier.
“Chairman, we are being sued!”
“Huh? Who is suing us, and why?” Norio Ohga frowned. Every year, many people tried to sue Sony, and most of them are trying to con money from them. That’s why Norio Ohga is not surprised.
Everything will be fine as long as the plaintiff is not backed by a country, like last time.
“It’s that Recording Industry Association of America.” This company is fighting a lawsuit with Aiwa. Why are they suing Sony?
“Why?”
“Do you still remember those websites we acquired? The websites that provided MP3 music download. The Recording Industry Association of America is claiming our website is providing illegal downloads of music and had infringed intellectual property rights. They are demanding 100 million USD!” Norio Ohga’s assistant exclaimed.
“What?! 100 million USD?!”
Norio Ohga stood up and accidentally knocks over his teacup. He had just told his assistant not to panic, but now, he is the same.
Norio Ohga had not expected this to happen. All they did was to acquire some websites. Why are they being sued? Is the Recording Industry Association of America stupid? What those websites did in the past has nothing to do with Sony.
Didn’t they know those websites stopped providing illegal downloads of music after Sony acquired them?
Norio Ohga was waiting to laugh at Aiwa, but now, Sony will be a laughingstock to Aiwa.
Sony is now in the center of the illegal downloads’ saga!
