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The spin:
CHICAGO, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the recording industry's most highly-regarded executives, Matt Oppenheim, has joined Jenner & Block as a Partner. Mr. Oppenheim will be a member of the Firm's Entertainment and New Media Practice, in addition to working closely with its Intellectual Property and Technology Practice.
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Mr. Oppenheim was Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based Recording Industry Association of America, where he oversaw a wide range of legal, strategic and technology matters. Foremost among Mr. Oppenheim's responsibilities at the RIAA has been to develop and implement strategies for the record industry's response to internet piracy. In that capacity, Mr. Oppenheim has been the lead RIAA litigator in the landmark internet "file-sharing" cases involving Napster, Aimster, Grokster, AudioGalaxy and Verizon. He also has been one of the individuals responsible for architecting and implementing the industry's current enforcement effort against individual infringers.
Mr. Oppenheim also has been critical to the record industry in formulating a litigation response to physical piracy. He led the industry in its CD manufacturing plant litigation against Media Group ($136 Million Judgment), Cinram ($10.1 Million settlement), Pioneer ($9.1 Million settlement) and AmericDisc ($9 Million settlement), among others. He has also been actively involved in overseeing a nationwide litigation program against rogue retailers as well as litigation against international piracy rings.
Mr. Oppenheim has also been active on important strategic issues facing the recording industry, including acting as a spokesperson in the Secure Digital Music Initiative, a multi-industry effort that sought to develop an open framework for playing, storing and distributing digital music and helping to negotiate the standard for the new DVD-Audio format.
"Matt has been a tremendous asset to the record industry by helping us to set a strategic vision during difficult times, and then turning around and implementing that vision," said Cary Sherman, President and Chief Legal Officer of the RIAA. "He has demonstrated himself as one of the best intellectual property litigators and strategists over and over again. While we are disappointed that Matt is leaving, we are delighted that he will be joining the firm of Jenner & Block where we will continue to rely on him."
"I can't think of a more appropriate fit for our popular entertainment and new media practice," said Managing Partner Robert L. Graham. "Matt's stature in the recording industry may be without parallel and the depth of experience as well as insight he brings to the Firm cannot help but greatly rebound to the advantage of its clients."
The National Law Journal in 2001 described Mr. Oppenheim as a "music warrior for the industry."
Before joining the RIAA in 1998, Mr. Oppenheim was an attorney with Proskauer Rose's Washington, D.C. office, where he was responsible for numerous technology and civil litigation matters affecting the telecommunications, entertainment and financial industries.
Mr. Oppenheim graduated from Cornell Law School in 1993.
The truth.
RIAA Dentist Leaves a Cavity!
By Andy Jordan
Despite the rosy picture painted in the press release, one has to wonder why
Oppenheim would choose to leave the RIAA now if their scorched-earth
litigation policy really has been even a tenth as successful as they have
been claiming. And why would he only be hired as a partner at Jenner &
Block, not a Senior Partner; why only as a "member of the Firm's
Entertainment and New Media Practice," and not its leader?
The RIAA farms out most of the litigation, and Oppenheim tossed plenty of
easy money Jenner and Block's way from the RIAA. This doesn't read like a
move up for Oppenheim; it doesn't seem to be the kind of position that would
attract someone who clawed his way up the litigation ladder to lead the
RIAA's draconian legal assault.
What kind of career move is this for someone took obvious pride and pleasure
from rolling over college students, 12-year-olds, retirees, single moms, and
anyone else not in a position to mount the kind of expensive defense his
monstrous lawsuits would require? We find it hard to believe that Oppenheim
would have sought this particular new job voluntarily.
As much as we would like to think that Oppenheim's departure foreshadows a
change of heart at the RIAA, we think it's premature to break out the
champagne just yet.
We were unfortunate enough to have first-hand experience of Oppenheim's
temper tantrums and foul-mouthed threats when the RIAA sued our son Jesse
Jordan back in April.
Behind all the bluff and bluster, there apparently was a lot of piss-poor
lawyering going on at the RIAA. It seemed to us that no one was really
minding the store, no one paying attention to the details.
When Jesse went on CNN and told Bill Hemmer that the RIAA's attempts at
intimidation wouldn't work and he expected to have his search engine back
online within a few days, Oppenheim went ballistic and claimed that Jesse
had violated the Injunction they had against him.
But the RIAA had no such injunction ... what they had was a Dismissal
agreement that clearly stated that Jesse could resume running his search
engine, so long as he took reasonable steps to avoid infringing on their
copyrights.
Aside from describing himself to Jesse as "a dentist you don't ever want to
have to visit again," Oppenheim tried to have the court throw out the
agreement and replace it with an injunction and a gag order, and even had
the outside lawfirm they hired in Albany sign a letter to the judge claiming
Jesse had "tricked" the RIAA's lawyers into signing a Dismissal instead of
the Injunction they intended to sign! To our relief, the Judge saw through
the blatant lies and entered the Dismissal as initially submitted to the
court.
Through the ordeal, a few of us got a shocking dose of Oppenheim's foul
temper and questionable judgement, and it seemed only a matter of time
before another screw-up would cause him to lose his temper with the wrong
person. That may have finally happened. In any case, the prediction of one
of Jesse's legal advisers is a bit closer to coming true; after one of
Oppenheim's X-rated outbursts, he said to Oppenheim, "Jesse will become a
national hero, and you'll be out in the street!"
leflaw
CodeWarrior
raoulduke1
gdZiemann
Capt-n-Jack
