“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

“Article I in the Maine Constitution states that ‘no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor be denied the equal protection of the laws, nor be denied the enjoyment of that person’s civil rights or be discriminated against.’”

“This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of Church and State,” Governor Baldacci said.

“It guarantees that Maine citizens will be treated equally under Maine’s civil marriage laws, and that is the responsibility of government.”

It will be interesting to watch the reaction to this decision. Maine joins Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa as the only states that currently allow same-sex marriages (though Vermont recently passed a law that will allow them as of September), but I’m fairly sure this is not the end of this debate. While I agree with Baldacci’s interpretation of Article I of the state Constitution, I am personally undecided on the issue; I have no doubt that there will be a call for a Constitutional amendment or referendum to ban same-sex marriages. I wonder if it will actually make it to a popular vote…

Update: some poor fact checking on my part lead me to misstate that Maine currently allows same-sex marriage as a result of this legislation. That is not quite correct. Like Vermont, this new law does not take effect until September, 90 days after the adjournment of this legistlative session.

Suing your customers is not a way to sustain a business model. When will the RIAA learn?

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.

While I do believe the file sharing may harm the music industry as it currently exists to some extent, I am appalled by the RIAA’s tactics as it attempts to save its failing business model. I support the decision by students at the legal aid clinic to get involved in defending their fellow students. This is both a great learning opportunity for U. Maine Law students, and a good way to show the RIAA that the people, its consumers, will not lay down and accept the dictates of the recording industry. Go U. Maine Law! You make me proud to be a new Mainer.