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RIAA Muscles 1st Court Victory Against a Downloader

It's a 7th grade Girl...

         

martinibuster

3:15 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Yesterday, the seventh grader became the industry's first legal trophy in a massive crackdown when she promised never to share songs over the Internet again and her mother agreed to pay $2,000

The little girl lives in subsidized housing, and the RIAA still took the $2000 award.

Read it here [globetechnology.com].

That's showing your muscle!

bakedjake

3:22 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

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Wow - that, IMHO, is the worst thing they could have done! Suing a 12 year old girl would get a whole bunch of negative publicity, especially if it went to court. But now, it just looks like the RIAA will come out untarnished.

Chances are the settlement was that the RIAA told the mum and girl to apologize, and they wouldn't have to pay. I'm not convinved the lady just wrote a check for $2000.

IANAL, though. lawman? :)

korkus2000

3:24 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I can't even express how disgusting this is. RIAA steals from the artists more than any song swappers could.

edit_g

3:24 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Ya... This makes me want to buy cd's... I hope the record companies and the artists that they represent are all very proud.

martinibuster

3:38 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



This is what the little girl had to say,

"Why are they picking on me?" she asked reporters after learning about the suit Monday night. "My stomach is all in knots."

juniperwasting

3:49 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It seems to me that the RIAA feels that fear and intimidation are the keys to winning their perceived struggle against file sharing.

If swappers see 12yr old girls and 71yr old grandparents getting sued it should make them think that anyone is a target.

Problem is people tend to fight back when they feel targeted.

I believe that these strong arm, mafia like tactics are going to blow up in the RIAA's face and could spell the end of their business as usual.

Ms. Schamis, 26, said she is nervous about the lawsuit and has no idea how to defend herself. "I'm unemployed so they are not going to get much from me. Good luck to them."

Like a predator they have targeted the weakest for attack; those with the lowest ability to defend themselves. Cowards.

mivox

5:43 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



*whew* Good thing they caught her young. Can't be too careful about keeping those low income families in their place....

penfold25

5:53 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



WOw , she might have to give them some of her money from her piggybank.
Isnt there a different law for minors?

bcolflesh

6:04 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Like a predator they have targeted the weakest for attack; those with the lowest ability to defend themselves. Cowards.

juniperwasting hits the nail on the head.

[edited by: mivox at 6:07 pm (utc) on Sep. 10, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no 'call to action' posts [/edit]

skipfactor

6:16 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Ya... This makes me want to buy cd's...

Right on. I will NEVER, EVER buy another new CD, and I've never downloaded an MP3. I'm headed to the used CD store...

dragonlady7

6:32 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It's ridiculous.

Yes, my PR tactic is one that elicits a response of "pick on someone your own size"-- that's what you want your customers saying.

I read an essay by Courtney Love about the actual terms of most of the contracts the musicians sign. It was astonishingly articulate, straightforward, honest, and disturbing.
[archive.salon.com...]

Related links:
[lists.insecure.org...]
"Courtney Love, the RIAA, and How To Lie With Statistics"

An older story about her lawsuit against Universal:
[eonline.com...]

Y'know, for all the controversy, I really really liked Hole when I was 15, and I legitimately bought all their albums.

Of course the best thing to do is look on the Internet for the artist and go to their home page and order a CD from them (many of them, you mail them a check or some well-concealed cash in a card and they'll mail the CD back to you, and often some stickers. I got two Less Than Jake cd's that way).

Anything to hurt the big recording businesses. If the next Britney Spears never gets "discovered".... so much the better. Christina Aguilera is actually a talented vocalist and when left to her own devices enjoys singing music like old Etta James songs. Don't you think she'd be better off without all the "handlers" and the dedicated cosmetologist to apply grease to her exposed flesh? Ew.

End of rant, thank you.

korkus2000

6:41 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



The truth of it is artist only make money touring. Recording profit is gobbled up by the "biz". Only mega artist like the ones whinning about song swappers <cough>Metallica</cough> own their own stuff. Normal bands only make cash on tour.

dragonlady7

7:47 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



A friend just posted this in his blog:

RIAA Radar: [magnetbox.com...]

I thought that was pretty funny.

[edited by: mivox at 9:19 pm (utc) on Sep. 10, 2003]
[edit reason] no "b-word" please! [/edit]

bakedjake

8:06 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



dragonlady7, thanks for the pointer to the salon article. As much as I dislike her music and personality, Courtney presented a very well thought out arguement in that article.

Very nice! Thanks again.

Duckula

9:02 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Music piracy is not a victimless crime

And if it is, they're make sure it doesn't stay this way. The victim: a 12 year old, honor student, daughter of single mother, with a 9 year old brother... they may as well be killing Santa Claus.

<tongue on cheek> They're expecting to convince people to not buy RIAA goods. </tongue on cheek>

(I still don't think the b-word is evil on any way... but anyway)

[edited by: Duckula at 9:33 pm (utc) on Sep. 10, 2003]

BlueSky

9:04 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



This is very sad. [...snip...] I don't agree with anyone stealing music. The answer though isn't to terrorize and give all these people court records just because they wanted to listen to their favorite songs/artists. If the RIAA wants to go after bootleggers who are profiting from this fine, but 12 and 71 year olds? Geez, how low they are to go after such harmless offenders. Getting $2,000 from a poor working family is disgusting. Thanks for the blog website, I'll be one of those who will not buy RIAA released music.

[edited by: mivox at 9:21 pm (utc) on Sep. 10, 2003]
[edit reason] see previous edits [/edit]

mivox

9:18 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



OK, this thread got a bit away from me while I wasn't looking...

It's pretty universally agreed that the RIAA's actions in this matter were despicable, but be that as it may, WebmasterWorld can't be put in the position of being any kind of 'organizing point' for a political action. (Especially against an aggressively litigious organization...)

I'm editing out the "b-word" from the last few posts, and would sure appreciate if folks could find a bit more round-a-bout way of referring to the idea of "not buying RIAA goods." ;)

Thanks all!

EliteWeb

9:24 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



RIAA is very entertaining and the fun thing is they research everything before they move in on their victim so in someones mind it was good. RIAA isnt supposed to be good people they are people to enforce rules they make to 'assist' the artists. :) Poor 12 year old girl hehehe that would be scary.

vmcknight

10:13 pm on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Independent musician Tom Smith has a hilarious song, "I Want My Music on Napster" which explains the benefits of shared music for the small artist.

Unfortunately, it isn't on the fine CDs for sale on his site, [tomsmithonline.com...] , but it may be available (ahem) elsewhere.

edit_g

10:09 am on Sep 11, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Just a little follow up research on this:

In the survey, 52% said they supported the music industry's position

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

This is an RIAA comissioned study... Yeah, that's right, they did a straw poll in their office and couldn't get more than 52% to agree...

lgn

11:58 am on Sep 12, 2003 (gmt 0)



Was the Poll conducted under threat of lawsuit, it they didn't support the RIAA actions :)

You think that their would be at least one intelligent person at the RIAA, who could figure that suing 12 year olds is not good for PR.

I would be interested in seeing the RIAA's fourth quarter results for CD sales, as compared to sales of let say blank CD media.

And by the way, the lawyers at the RIAA are offspring born out of illicit union :)