New2Maine.com

In follow-up news to my previous post about students at UMaine Law assisting their fellow UMaine students in their fight against the RIAA, a Maine Judge Magistrate accuses RIAA of ‘gamesmanship’:

These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined.’ She noted that once the RIAA dismisses its ‘John Doe’ case it does not thereafter join the defendants when it sues them in their real names.

While magistrate judge Margaret Kravchuk did not go so far as to recommend dismissing the lawsuit, she did suggest to the presiding judge in the case that the RIAA attorneys be sanctioned under Rule 11 for their gamesmanship. “Suppose,” she writes, “instead of university students, the record companies chose to target all individuals within the District of Maine who had used these P2P services and had TimeWarner Cable for their ISP.”

Would all those individuals be properly joined in a single complaint? I think the Plaintiffs know the answer to that question because on May 5, 2007, many of these same plaintiffs filed a very similar lawsuit, Atlantic Recording Corp., et al. v. Does 1-22, 1:07-cv-057-JAW. A procedure similar to the one used in this case was adopted in that case, but no motions to dismiss or motions to quash were filed and presumably the plaintiffs obtained the discovery they sought.”

According to Ray Beckerman at Recording Industry vs. The People, “It’s highly unusual for a judge to suggest Rule 11 sanctions. It shows that this judge really understood the pernicious and dishonest game the RIAA lawyers are playing…[i]f Rule 11 sanctions do wind up being imposed against the RIAA lawyers, I don’t think you’ll see any more mass John Doe cases.”

I’m glad to see that people are finally standing up to these legal bullies in a meaningful way, and I’m glad that some of the impetus to fight back is coming from Maine.

For our date night this past week, She and I headed, sans reservation, to Caiola’s in the West End. Caiola’s is one of the tougher tables in town, especially on Friday night, but we’d heard nothing but rave reviews, so we figured “what the hell?” Bonobo, a much-praised pizza joint, is just down the block, so if Caiola’s turned us away, pizza sounded good too. Luckily for us, late January is not the busiest dining season in Portland, so we were offered a table in the “back room” at Caiola’s if we were willing to wait about half an hour. Being not particularly hungry after a late lunch, we agreed.

Boy are we glad we did. After some wine at the bar, a pleasant, if random, conversation with two Portlanders also From Away, and about 25 minutes, we were led through the kitchen into an intimate nook where they usually hold small private parties. The menu was a modest one page affair (with a separate wine and cocktail list) and apparently changes daily based on available ingredients. She selected a French-style salad with greens and beets, and I opted for the ham soup after learning that they had just 86′ed the Little Gem salad. Both were above average as appetizers go, but they were just appetizers. After some consultation with the waitress, I selected the pork tenderloin and She, the hanger steak meat loaf, which one of our earlier conversation mates had ordered.

The pork tenderloin is quite possibly the finest I’ve ever eaten. It was cured (brined), grilled, and served with mushrooms and a spectacular brown sauce. A gratin potato and broccoli rabe completed a fantastic entrée for me. She was quite pleased with the meat loaf, which was served with the rabe and polenta. After tasting my tenderloin, however, much jealousy and begging for “just one more bite” ensued. Yes, it really was that good. For dessert we shared the warm brownie with vanilla ice cream. It was good, but I wouldn’t call it “the best dessert in Portland” like the waitress did. At $100 including gratuity and two glasses of wine, Caiola’s is probably not an every week sort of restaurant for us, but it has definitely vaulted its way to our top three list here in town. Next time, however, we’ll call ahead (207-772-1110).

She and I try to go out at least once a week for a “date night.” On a few occasions, we’ve gone to a movie. So far we’ve been to three different theaters in the area, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on them.

First, in downtown Portland, you have the Nickelodeon Theater on Temple Street. Containing six theaters using analog projectors, this cinema has an indie theater feel to it. Small theaters are the norm, and stadium seating is nowhere to be found. They also use analog projectors and we’ve noticed that they’re not always monitored as closely as one might like–we saw the top half of I Am Legend for about three minutes until someone fixed the projector. The prices are decent ($7.50 for adults; $5.00 all day on Tuesday) and the selection is usually pretty current. If you’re planning an evening out in Old Port, this is a pretty good option. If the object of your evening is to go see a movie, you may want to look elsewhere.

The second theater we watched a movie in up here was the CineMagic Theater on County Road in Westbrook. This is the most up-to-date (and therefore most expensive) theater we’ve been to up here, but not by much. At $9.00 each, the tickets are not as bad as Crossgates 18 in Albany (where I believe they’re now up over $10 a piece). The selection is great (they currently have 20 films on the schedule) and the stadium seating ideal. They even have an IMAX theater for $13.00. We don’t spend much time over that way though, so we’ve settled on the next theater as our regular movie night destination.

The Hoyt’s Cinemas Falmouth 10 is both slightly more convenient and slightly less expensive that CineMagic (only by $0.50 a ticket). It offers 10 THX certified theaters, a good selection of current films, and some decent restaurants nearby on Rte. 1 for before or after snacking. She happens to be a waitress up there too, so we get to eat at one of those restaurants for a discount (don’t worry, I won’t shill for them here). Our most recent movie night found us seeing The Bucket List at Falmouth. Though the theater lacked CineMagic’s stadium seating, the view was great nonetheless, and the digital projector was a much nicer experience than Nickelodeon’s older analog.

Weighing all the pros and cons, I think we’ll stick to Falmouth except for those movies that just cry out for IMAX. The fact that we got a $50 gift certificate to Hoyt’s for Christmas certainly helps make that decision easier too.

Thanks to reader SteveG for pointing out that this site was down for almost a day. I guess that’s what I get for only checking the admin portion of the site (which was still running fine). The problem turned out to be a memory usage error in the little widget I use to display the current weather conditions in Portland. I’ve disabled it until I have time to figure out exactly what was causing the issue, and that seems to have restored the rest of the site.

Speaking of the weather in Portland, it’s been cold lately. Actually, make that Cold, with a capital C. The last several days the temperatures haven’t make it out of the teens. The highest forecast high for the upcoming week is 33°F, or just barely above freezing. The lowest overnight low is forecast at 4°F. I think She better pull out another blanket from the closet. It appears we’re going to need it.

Prior to going to see The Bucket List for date night last week, She and I stopped at the newly opened Mexico Lindo on Forest Ave. in Portland for dinner. Mexico Lindo is, apparently, a chain. There is another store in South Portland, and three or four more in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The new location is just down the street from our apartment, so we’ve seen the “coming soon” signs for quite some time. They opened in December I believe. We went over at around 6:00 PM on a Friday night without a reservation and had no trouble at all getting a table.

The wait staff was friendly and the menu very diverse. She and I have had some good Mexican food before but would not really consider ourselves aficionados of south-of-the-border cuisine. Being that we were in a bit of a hurry to get to the movie, we stuck to quick-to-make dishes—She had an enchilada and I had burritos. My dish was served with the traditional refried beans and rice. She ordered a smaller meal, so hers did not come with the rice. Both meals were okay to good. The burritos had been sprinkled with cheese and stuck under the broiler, making them a fork and knife dish rather than the finger food you’d expect.

We did not look at the dessert menu. We were in and out in about 45 minutes, and for under $35, including tip (She had sangria, so that upped the cost a bit). The restaurant was moderately full, but not busy. No one seemed to be waiting for a table, and it generally seemed to be a family restaurant. We’ve had better Mexican food back in Albany, and our friends up here tell us that there is a really good Mexican place in Kittery. We’d probably go back to Mexico Lindo again, but it’s unlikely to become a favorite.