12-Year-Old Sued for Music Downloading

[Caution]

NEW YORK — The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers — including a 12-year-old New York City girl who thought downloading songs was fun.

Brianna LaHara said she was frightened to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued yesterday by giant music companies in federal courts around the country.

"I got really scared. My stomach is all turning," Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother.

"I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?"

<snip>

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html

Let the backlash against the RIAA begin. What a bunch of total scumbags.

[trogdor]

1. The picture (NY Post)

Normally I despise everything the Post and Faux News does, but this time, I'll make an exception.

I wanted to go to the amnesty site to tell them to blow me, but then they'd have my email address, my IP, and everything. I prefer to "drive by" KaZaA, closing the portal when I'm finished.

Anyway, I have most of that stuff somewhere on vinyl, so they really can blow me.

[Pert_UK]

51. She's 12??? What do you feed your American children?

She looks like she's 17 to me!

Incidentally, this isn't a throwaway remark - I do genuinely find that Americans often look older than Brits of the same age.

Odd.

P.

[htuttle]

2. Suing a 12 yr old who lives in the projects?

What does the RIAA think it's going to get out of that?

How can they sue a 12 year old? Minors have no legal authority to enter into any sort of contract. Nowhere will the RIAA find a 'permission slip' signed by the mother allowing her daughter to download files -- where is the RIAA getting legal standing for this? If they want to hit the 12 year old with criminal charges, maybe, but they'd need to find a willing prosecutor. Since these are just civil charges, how can the girl be liable as a minor?

[bleedingheart]

7. oh wait til OLielly gets a hold of this ...

"how can a mother in the projects afford to give her kids such luxuries as the internet...??"" where is the outrage..???

Fox will spin this in the music industry's favor...

[damnraddem]

20. Can a 12-year-old be sued?

Yes, the parent might be sued for what the 12-year-old did; but can the kid herself be sued?

This is, after all, a civil suit -- not a criminal charge, where a presecutor might seek the death penalty. As we all know, it's just fine to execute minors in this country.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Now's the time for all good people to do NOTHING!!

Especially people with low incomes like in the example here. The RIAA can pay to get all the summary judgements from all the people who don't bother even showing up in court and then GOOD LUCK collecting a dime of it.

Scumbags is right!

[bleedingheart]

4. they picked her to make a point

that the peons had better not mess with corporate america..

However corporate america can destroy people and suck pension funds dry without any fuss.

[DS1]

5. You see, if we didn't have welfare, she wouldn't have a computer to

commit crimes with!

/Republican Logic

[qb]

6. I used to feel a twinge of guilt

over copying CDs. No more.

[silverchair]

8. doesn't the RIAA

have better things to do? they can kiss my ass!!

[damnraddem]

21. Why not trademark your ass ...

and make the RIAA pay to kiss it? But sue them if they copy it. ;-)

[Judi Lynn]

9. Related story:

20 Colorado Residents Sued Over Internet Music Downloads

Sep 9, 2003 10:36 am US/Mountain
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) Greg Glover, father of three Net-surfing teenagers, was surprised to learn he's among 20 Colorado residents accused in federal lawsuits of stealing music over the Internet.

Glover, of Fort Collins, said he's never used an Internet music-sharing site.

"Me personally, no, but the kids and all their friends do all that kind of stuff," Glover said Monday. "I couldn't get on there if I tried. I don't know how to download that stuff." (snip)

(snip) The RIAA said thousands of lawsuits may eventually be filed to crack down on Internet users who trade songs online. (snip/...)

http://news4colorado.com/crimeaccidentreport/local_story_252124400.html

[NickB79]

10. Let the blowback begin!!!

Lets see how their sales do now when people see how petty the music companies really are by suing a 12-yr old.

[qb]

11. Is the RIAA by chance using FAUX lawyers?

Just asking :)

[Suspicious]

12. Outrageous.

What, exactly, is the RIAA trying to accomplish with these BS lawsuits? Obviously, they are aware of the fact that you can not take blood from a stone, so I can only believe that they are deliberately trying to make an example of, humiliate and frighten some of the more destitute citizens of this country, as well as the most defenseless. :mad:

I say someone should start a defense fund for these people - to ensure that they can afford the best possible legal representation to aid them in fighting these bogus lawsuits tooth and nail.

[demon67]

13. I ask again . . . where are our candiates on this issue?

The RIAA is abusing the DMCA like Ashcroft abusing the Patriot Act. Why aren't any of the Democratic candidates getting out in front on this issue which affects 60 million ordinary Americans?

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Ahh ... To Be A Class-Action Lawyer ...

If the RIAA did even one thing wrong -- crossed an I or dotted a T -- the error will be like a swimmer with a paper cut in a shark-infested area.

This is why we Little People ought to have access to lawyers -- and why the GOP fears and hates litigation so much.

I'll hazard a guess and say that by the end of the year, there will be hundreds of mammoth lawsuits filed against the RIAA based on civil rights, wiretap, improper procedure, and fair-use laws. They will get a taste of their own medicine as the RIAA and its funders are bled white during a recession.

All the mouthings of "theft is theft" will be for naught. When the RIAA decided to make sharing illegal, they opened a can of bees. I'm waiting for some latter-day Lyle Stuart to try to sue some major library system for "facilitating theft of intellectual property" as a protest.

After the blood has been cleaned up, THEN maybe we'll get some sensible intellectual property law in this country.

--bkl
When you're unemployed (and want work), isn't that theft of your income?

[Nottingham]

15. How is a 12 year old suppose to know copyright law!

Unbelievable! :bounce:

[sham]

16. un-fucking-believable

I can't believe this is real. It sounds like a headline from The Onion.

I tend to only download music from pay sites like Apple's new service (which is fantastic, by the way) b/c I don't mind paying $.79-$.99 for a song, esp. for an indie artist, but this bullshit is really tempting me to head on over to Kazaa. Fuck the RIAA!

[hyphenate]

18. Use KazaaLite; no spyware

It's also got some protections against RIAA IPs checking machines. You can also set your system up so that enquiries can't see what else is on your computer except for the song they're looking for.

FWIW: Supposedly, the RIAA said they wouldn't be going after "small" downloaders, but what the hell do they classify as "small?" I mean, if I download about three or four songs a week, is that small, medium or large?

The music industry sucks: if people could afford to buy CDs or other music, they wouldn't download so much. How can your average pre-teen, or even working teenager, or unemployed person afford to spend $50 on the equivalent of 3 CDs? It's impossible. If they lowered their prices so everyone could afford them, that would certainly cut the amount of downloading down on the 'net.

[Zhade]

35. You know what else pisses me off?

Go on Kazaa, or whatever P2P application you desire, and check out the ungodly amount of really horrible stuff on there.

Yet the focus is on MUSIC DOWNLOADERS? WTF!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. No, an Onion headline would be like this

"RIAA sues 1-year-old for singing 'ga-ga' in public, infringes Queen song copyright."

[Voltaire99]

22. Or, like this

"Fetus sued for prenatal piracy; mother piped 'stolen' mp3s to womb"

[prolesunited]

17. What about the music industry

getting its act together and following Apple's model. People will pay money for music, but they also want the ability to customize their own CDs or pay only for songs they want.

iTunes Music Store Sells Ten Millionth Song

Cupertino, California—September 8, 2003—Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over ten million songs from the iTunes® Music Store since its launch just over four months ago, averaging over 500,000 songs per week. The ten millionth song, “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne, was purchased and downloaded at 11:34 p.m. (PDT) on September 3.

The combination of the iTunes digital music jukebox, the pioneering iTunes Music Store and the market-leading iPod™ digital music player provide users with a complete solution for buying, managing and listening to their digital music collections anywhere. The iTunes Music Store will be available to Windows users by the end of this year.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/sep/08musicstore.html

[The Zanti Regent]

53. Steve Jobs points the way; nobody follows

Steve just sold 10 MILLION songs at the I Tunes Music Store and they sell for 99¢ a shot.

The RIAA is too stupid to comprehend what Steve is doing, but he's showing the future of music marketing.

Me, I've bought 300 tunes from Steve and am happy as can be!

[TheYellowDog]

23. Someone asked where our candidates are on this,

Well, I'm not sure about our candidates, but I do know that Howard Berman and John Conyers are in the RIAA's pocket. They've sponsored a bill in the House calling for prison terms for people who download even one song. Screw you Conyers, screw you Berman. It's sad to say it, but the Senator who is calling for an investigation of the RIAA's bullying tactics is none other than Norm Coleman. It's a pathetic day when a Republican in the Senate is doing something right, and Democrats in the house are doing something wrong.

[Trek234]

29. I believe one of them

a few weeks ago was found to be violating the copyright on his web serving software.

Rather ironic, really.

[ButterflyBlood]

44. Coleman doing something good?

what the fuck?

I actually heard though that Brownback was looking in to ways to protect P2P networks, however there was a bill in the House that would've loosened laws protecting them, it's sponsored by a Democrat (Ellen Tauscher - CA) and has 5 cosponsors, only one's a Republican (Chris Cannon - UT), the only other one I can remember is Pete Stark.

[Zero Division]

24. Time to Organize a Massive Boycott

If there's one issue where I feel confident that a boycott would be effective, this is it.

If the RIAA is going to sue people for the "jay-walking" of the Internet, we simply need to make it clear that they are going to lose even more profits by resorting to this (Of course, I understand that some lawsuits may be reasonable if it involves illegal file-sharing that goes way beyond normal individual use).

I wouldn't be surprised if such a boycott would become one of the most successful boycotts in history given the amount of people who have either downloaded music with file-sharing themselves or who know many people who do so and think that the RIAA's actions are unreasonable.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

28. I'm with you guys.... Shit, that's a line from Oh Brother Where Art Thou.

Guess I'm leaving on a jet plane... Damn, I did it again!

Also, if you use any of the Kazaa programs, I understand there's a program called PeerGaurdian which blocks IP addresses associated with the Music Goon Squad.

[chadm]

32. I agree

www.boycott-riaa.com.

Their site is performing slowly due to a traffic overload, no doubt.

[LiberalBushFan]

33. chain mail anyone?

I'd start out with "RIAA SUES 12-YEAR-OLD FROM PROJECTS" or something like that. Most of these people who are getting sued and end up paying thousands to the RIAA for doing what they saw all their friends doing were unaware of their suing rampage until they got slapped with the subpoena. The really sad thing is that on other message boards at least half the users think that "cheap file-swappers" stole and must be punished and that it's taking money from the artists' paychecks (when really it's the RIAA that's stealing from the artists).

"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation," said Cary Sherman, the RIAA's president. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action."

Boo hoo hoo. Why don't you sue the service providers instead? Because they might actually have a chance of defending themselves?

If half the thousands of people DU advocate this boycott over e-mail lists that will reach A LOT of people, and many who actually care about this issue and will participate. And better yet this may give RIAA-independent artists, who probably produce better music on the average, and new market.

[democracyindanger]

49. Boycott? HAHAHAHAHA

That's rich. People who aren't buying CDs because they're downloading the music for free are going to boycott buying CDs? That'll be effective.

[Zero Division]

55. Whaaa?

Just because people download music for free doesn't not at all mean that they don't buy cds. Just from my own personal experience I know that many people who download mp3s still buy a substantial amount of cds.

First of all, if you don't have a cd burner, mp3 player, or easy access to a friend with a burner it certainly sucks not to be able to play any of your downloaded music in you cd player.

Second, even if you do have access to one of these things you may actually still buy the cds because you do care about paying for the music, or you want the packaging because you enjoy collecting cds, or other reasons.

Aside from that, believe or not, people who don't download music themselves but know many others who do use file sharing may find the actions of the RIAA just as reprehensible as those who do download music.

[Occulus]

57. You're missing the point.

It's no boycott if people are still listening. The RIAA will be able to make their case even better if people stop buying CDs only to share more.

However, if both sharing and CD sales go down consistently over any appreciable length of time, well, their case completely falls apart.

Advice: only buy and share non-RIAA member music. Yank the rug out from under the feet of the 'industry'.

And once people realize they have the power to band together and do this, I predict the behavior will snowball.

[Zero Division]

59. Well, the point you make actually makes sense. So thank you.

eom

[Onlooker]

25. Boycott CDs

Isn't it time that we started to boycott the CD manufacturers by buying used CDs, relying more on the regular radio and internet radio, going to live shows, and learning to play music ourselves!

[AntiCoup2K4]

26. Wait a damn minute... Am I the only one who caught this?

"I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?"

The girl's mother subscribed to a pay service. The music was paid for. Therefore, the RIAA-SS Gestapo doesn't have a case.

[Caution]

27. Nope

the girl's mother paid for an ad-free copy of kazaa. Their perception may have been that they were paying for the music but that fee has nothing to do with the music.

[Trek234]

30. Exactly

After the RIAA is done with them the family should turn around and sue Kazaa for its obvious attempts to mislead people as to what they are actually buying.

[Chovexani]

31. Sleazy motherfuckers

Unbelievable. Just frelling unbelievable. What a bunch of sleazy motherfuckers.

I hated them before but...damn. I just don't know what to say to that. Suing a 12 year old kid from the projects?

And they wonder why people file share?!

[NekoChris]

34. HATE. HATE. HATE.

I hate the RIAA.

What do they even DO?

What do they CONTRIBUTE?

As far as I can see, NOTHING.

Not a damn, thing.

They're like the fat bully at the sandbox who wants all the toys for himself.

Someone get Dean or another candiate to address this issue. If they want sure fire supporters all they have to do is speak up against this ignorance and they'll be ASSURED the Computer Nerd Vote.

[madrchsod]

36. wow,there`s finally some posts

over this..if you think this is bad you`re wrong, this is worse-accops,just google. we can all thank our democrat john conyers for this..

[Chovexani]

37. Know Your Rights!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a WONDERFUL page set up with info on how to protect yourself from these sleazy RIAA jerks here:

http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php

Read it, get informed, and in the meantime BOYCOTT THE RIAA!

[ProudGerman]

38. Yeah, those RIAA demons targetted that 12 year old

What were they supposed to do when they found out the person doing the downloading was 12? Go, oh golly gee, its ok. We know nothing of this case, what if this 12 year old has thousands of songs on her computer, just like every kid I've met who discusses their downloading habits. My 17 year old cousin will probably end up getting sued too, she's got over 30 gigs of songs she's downloaded on her computer, so much she had to get a second hard drive to hold them all. Go ahead and ask me the last time she actually bought a CD. It's been at least 2 years.

I personally know people who'll download hundreds of songs in spurts, not 4 or 5 a week. Every last one of them says this, almost word for word too, "why pay for it when I can get it for free?"

The RIAA sucks, really really sucks. They are leeches, and suck the life blood and money out of their clients. This is not one of the reasons they suck. If it wasn't digital media being stolen, and say Fords, nobody would be taking the side of the defendants.

I don't think any blame should go to Kazaa for "duping" these people. Kazaa shouldn't be liable for this 12 year old or her mothers ignorance. They think they were listening to songs, and not recording them. I guess the fact that the songs were still on the computer when they turned it back on didn't clue them in.

[Mechatanketra]

47. Digital media can't be "stolen".

It wasn't digital media being stolen, and say Fords, nobody would be taking the side of the defendants.

Fords can be "stolen". Theft involves a deprivation of property.

Copyrights are "infringed". This is legally distinct from theft, because when one infringes a copyright, one does not deny further use of that property to the copyright owner.

It follows that interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion or fraud. The Copyright Act even employs a separate term of art to define one who misappropriates a copyright ... -- Justice Harry Blackman, 1985, Dowling v. United States

Illegal is illegal -- but parking violations aren't equivalent to DUI despite both being vehicular offenses. One of the many reasons the RIAA does suck is the way they misrepresent the facts to wrap themselves in an aura of victimhood -- one, by blurring the lines between the corporate copyright owners (who hold those rights by the constitutionally questionably "work for hire" clause) and the original artistic creators, and second, by making inaccurate comparisons to physical theft.

[Zero Division]

56. Thank you for that incredibly intelligent response.

This just demonstrates why nuanced, non-black-and-white thinking is so important in issues like this.

[LiberalBushFan]

39. by the way

Where could I find which labels/artists are RIAA-affiliated?

[ButterflyBlood]

45. check their site

it's got a list of all RIAA labels. Good thing the stuff I listen to isn't on it.

[Suspicious]

46. Here you go.

I'm very disappointed to see Nothing Records listed. :(

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/membership.php

[jack wilson]

40. File-sharers and looters

Looter, caught with television:
I already have a tv, this is a backup

It costs $20 to make a tv and they charge $500 for them

There's nothing good on tv, they should give them away

If I like what I see on this tv, I may buy my own

The door on this store was wide open, no one said you couldn't take one

If they would give away tv's, sales would go up

If you arrest me, I will get mad and I will never buy a tv from this store

I didn't know there was a specific law against stealing tv's

[Zero Division]

41. Yeah, this is exactly like stealing a car or a TV (sarcasm)

(sarcasm)Yes, it's definitely time to sue the hell out of people for things like taping music from the radio. These people are criminals of the worst sort.

We need to make 60 million Americans pay for their heinous theft.

And while we're at it let's throw those life-endagering thugs who walk across streets when there's no walk signal where they belong, behind bars.
(sarcasm)

[Samuraimad]

43. i've seen better rationale defending the invasion

corprate whore

[toopers]

54. What we really should be looking into

is the wide spread price fixing across the music industry which is making the price of CDs remain artificially high, and hurting sales.

[Chovexani]

60. Oh that's just the tip of the iceberg

Personally I'd like to see an investigation into payola too.

[Occulus]

58. the only way

your comparison is relevant is if I'm using advanced and currently nonexistent nanotechnology to replicate the TV or car or whatever.

When you copy data on a filesharing network, you don't delete it from the host. It remains, and you have a new instance of the data in question.

Your analogy reveals a fundamental misconception of how computers and filesharing actually work.

[Mokito]

62. You mistake the medium for the media.

eom

[BadGimp]

42. They settled for $2,000

http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1027_3-5073717.html?part=msnbc-cnet&tag=alert&form=feed&subj=cnetnews

bastards :(

Long Live KaZaa

[Caution]

61. Of course they settled

$2000 to a single mother of two living in the projects is a MASSIVE amount of money. Can you imagine the fear this woman felt? And the RIAA knew this was a PR nightmare.

Either way it just goes to show how soulless these people really are.

[are_we_united_yet]

48. Hey RIAA....

You guys suk!

[Unforgiven]

50. RIAA Out Of Control

This is the absolute end. These idiots are well out of control and have been given way to much lattitude. Question is what do we do? (Besides not buying Music in any form)

[Pert_UK]

52. Next targets - crippled orphans, cancer patients.......

OK guys, who cut the Public Relations department out of the loop on this one?

P.