Blogging from the front lines of the RIAA wars

Yesterday, I glimpsed the phrase "Answers From Lawyers Who Defend Against RIAA Suits" on my screensaver, which displays Slashdot headlines via RSS.  When I had a little time later on I went to Slashdot and found the article; Slashdotters interviewed two lawyers from Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP in New York, Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman, who are getting assignments from EFF to represent defendants "who have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for having computers whose internet accounts were used to access peer-to-peer file sharing accounts."  The Slashdot interview is terrific, featuring questions by turns intelligent, funny ("You guys are lawyers AND like to help people? What's it like on your home planet ;) ?"), and frustrated.  All by itself, the interview is highly informative as to the issues involved in, and the logistics of, these cases.

But then I went and checked out the blog Messrs. Rogers and Beckerman have been writing for a little over a year:  Recording Industry vs The People.  WOW.  (*sigh* I remember when I was actually able to stay on top of all the law blogs, especially the really good ones, but this was my first visit to Ty's and Ray's.)  These guys are doing for the RIAA suits what Groklaw did for SCO v. IBM.  In addition to discussing interesting and/or important developments in all the related litigation, these two — armed primarily with Blogger + blog*spot + their brains and determination — are creating quite a valuable collection of resources for anyone following these cases, including:

• a directory of lawyers defending RIAA suits,
• an overview of how the RIAA litigation process works, and
  
• a comprehensive table of pending cases and related documents.

When folks like Ty and Ray narrate their work, everyone benefits.