STOP RIAA - Sign the Petition + 12 years old girl sued by the RIAA - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

crashoverride · 09-12-2003, 05:41 PM

Sign the Anti RIAA Petition
http://www.eff.org/share/petition

Quote:

September 9, 2003 -- The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers - including a 12-year-old Upper West Side 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 on West 84th Street 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?"

The Recording Industry Association of America - a music-industry lobbying group behind the lawsuits - couldn't answer that question.

"We are taking each individual on a case-by-case basis," said RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss.

Asked if the association knew Brianna was 12 when it decided to sue her, Weiss answered, "We don't have any personal information on any of the individuals."

Brianna's mom, Sylvia Torres, said the lawsuit was "a total shock."

"My daughter was on the verge of tears when she found out about this," Torres said.

The family signed up for the Kazaa music-swapping service three months ago, and paid a $29.99 service charge.

Usually, they listen to songs without recording them. "There's a lot of music there, but we just listen to it and let it go," Torres said.

When reporters visited Brianna's home last night, she was helping her brother with his homework.

Her mom said Brianna's an honors student at St. Gregory the Great, a Catholic school on West 90th Street.

Brianna was among 261 people sued for copying thousands of songs via popular Internet file-sharing software - and thousands more suits could be on the way.

"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."

At the same time, the RIAA offered amnesty to file-swappers who come forward and agree to stop illegally downloading music over the Internet.

People who already have been sued are not eligible for amnesty.

Brianna and the others sued yesterday under federal copyright law could face penalties of up to $150,000 per song, but the RIAA has already settled some cases for as little as $3,000.

"It's not like we were doing anything illegal," said Torres. "This is a 12-year-old girl, for crying out loud."

meanSpleen · 09-12-2003, 06:28 PM

I'm not signing it. As much as I think the RIAA is aproaching this the wrong way, they have every right to sue anyone they find downloading copyrighted mp3s. Its not like they didn't warn anyone. Besides, its the family's fault for not reading Kazaa's EULA and knowing Kazaa does not protect anyone from the unlawful download of any materials.

Blame the parents, sue the girl. Good.

Mr.Deflok · 09-12-2003, 10:13 PM

This is a little hard to judge, she was doing something illegal and they can't blame ignorance for doing it because it's common knowledge that doing so is in fact illegal. However she is just 12 years old, unfair to sue her? Hard to say, it sounds cruel but if she went and killed someone and then said they'd throw her in a detention center would we be as shocked? I'm not sure where I stand on this one.

Zello · 09-12-2003, 10:15 PM

I have to agree with meanSpleen. I hate that the RIAA is suing people just to prove a point.

The site says "Copyright law shouldn't make criminals out of 60 million Americans..." Maybe it shouldn't, but everyone downloading music (including me) is breaking the law.

Ganguro · 09-13-2003, 09:13 AM

a-fucking-men

juanvaldes · 09-13-2003, 12:06 PM

topic = music/RIAA
forum = Music

crashoverride · 09-13-2003, 01:41 PM

some updates - RIAA got sued for amnesty offer

A day after the Recording Industry Association of America filed a slew of lawsuits against alleged illegal song swappers, it became the target of legal action over its own "amnesty" program.
California resident Eric Parke, on behalf of the general public of the state, filed a suit Tuesday against the trade association because of its amnesty, or "Clean Slate," program, a provisional shield it introduced Monday that allows people to avoid legal action by stepping forward and forfeiting any illegally traded songs. The suit, filed in the Marin Superior Court of California, charges that the RIAA's program is a deceptive and fraudulent business practice.

It is "designed to induce members of the general public...to incriminate themselves and provide the RIAA and others with actionable admissions of wrongdoing under penalty of perjury while (receiving)...no legally binding release of claims...in return," according to the complaint.

"This lawsuit seeks a remedy to stop the RIAA from engaging in unlawful, misleading and fraudulent business practices," the suit reads.

The RIAA responded to the suit with a maxim: "No good deed goes unpunished, apparently."

"It's also unfortunate that a lawyer would try to prevent others from getting the assurances they want that they will not be sued," an RIAA representative wrote in an e-mail.

The complaint is the first legal retaliation to the RIAA's lawsuit campaign against individual file swappers. The trade group filed 261 lawsuits against computer users it said were exclusively "egregious" file swappers, marking the first time copyright laws have been used on a mass scale against individual Net users. The barrage of lawsuits signaled a turning point in the industry's three-year fight against online song-trading services such as Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster and one of the most controversial moments in the recording industry's digital history.

On Tuesday, the RIAA settled its first case with Brianna Lahara, a 12-year-old New York resident. The recording industry agreed to drop its case against the preteen in exchange for $2,000, a sum considerably lower than previous settlement arrangements. Legal actions by the RIAA had been taken on a sporadic basis against operators of pirate servers or sites, but ordinary computer users have never before been at serious risk of liability for widespread behavior.

After long years of avoiding direct conflict with file swappers who might also be music buyers, industry executives said they have lost patience. Monday's lawsuits are just the first wave of what the group said ultimately could be "thousands more" lawsuits filed over the next few months.

Under the RIAA's "Clean Slate" program, file swappers must destroy any copies of copyrighted works they have downloaded from services such as Kazaa and sign a notarized affidavit pledging never to trade copyrighted works online again.

But Ira Rothken, legal counsel for Parke, said after reviewing the RIAA's legal documents that the trade group provides no real amnesty for such file swappers. With the legalese, the trade group does not agree to destroy data or promise to protect users from further suits, Rothken said.

"The legal documents only give one thing to people in return: that the RIAA won't cooperate," Rothken said. "The RIAA's legal document does not even prevent RIAA members from suing."

The suit asks the court to enjoin the RIAA from falsely advertising its program.

maximus · 09-14-2003, 07:42 AM

i signed that shit, fuck corperate america and the riaa. i can go to the library abd photocopy a copyrighted book, u gonna sue me then? we music sharers are not making a profit off downloading music, we are not selling it, just sharing it. what is the diffrence in dling a song off the internet and taping a movie on tv? i see no difference. mabee if the money grubbing music industry would cut down the monopoly they have on cds and give consumers fair prices, we would not dl as much......

essendoubleop · 09-14-2003, 08:01 AM

Was she sharing? I thought they only went after you if you were sharing?

Time to fire up WASTE then...

Derwood · 09-14-2003, 08:05 AM

I won't sign. First of all, electronic petitions have zero weight, so signing one is fruitless. Second, I'm not going to sign something that says I agree with the person breaking the law.

crashoverride · 09-14-2003, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by essendoubleop
Was she sharing? I thought they only went after you if you were sharing?

Time to fire up WASTE then...

well the problem is you are sharing automatically unless you deactivate the upload function.

burgerdog · 09-15-2003, 01:46 AM

the New York Times has a good article on some various RIAA stuff. The best part is where one of the people going after filesharers was stealing other people's stuff as well:

Quote:

LAST week's lawsuits against file-sharers are an attempt to get the public to treat copying not as a question of technological possibility or moral implications, but as a threat to the wallet. A study by Forrester Research found that 68 percent of burners said they would stop if they thought they might get in serious trouble. As in sampling, the moral questions should follow the financial ones, said Josh Bernoff, the principal analyst covering media and entertainment at Forrester.

But the process still had some hurdles to get over, Mr. Bernoff admitted. Recently he was discussing his research with an executive at a media organization that has been very aggressive about trying to discourage file-sharing. When Mr. Bernoff asked the executive how he had gotten the report, which Forrester sells for $895, the man hesitated.

"They got a copy from one of the studios," Mr. Bernoff said. "Here is an organization that's saying that stealing hurts the little people, and they took our intellectual property and they shuttled it around like a text file."

SOURCE

JohnnyRock · 09-15-2003, 11:37 AM

sorry. I can't fault anyone looking to protect their intellectual property and make some money-- even if I think they could go about it differently.

earWIG · 09-15-2003, 12:33 PM

Hey, when did everybody become frigging lawyers? Screw the RAII and their high-dollar lawyers (who this is REALLY all about). Fair to say that no amount of "illegal" file swapping can begin to even the score between these record inductry scumbags and the public that has been getting reamed by them for at least 30 years. 18 bucks for a CD? And then they complain about people sharing? Ridiculous. And this whole rap they're putting out about the Artists being short-changed because of file-sharing is a JOKE. The artists have already been reamed and put up to dry by the time they even have a CD out to rip.
If the artist wants to make a living, they'll have to do what they've always had to do - play gigs and sell t-shirts. Most artists have an atrocious "deal" with their label regarding sales - merely a couple of pennies on the dollar.
And the live thing is also going away since most venues and ticket outlets have begun major gauging in that arena as well.
Gimmie a break.

mrcraptastic · 09-15-2003, 08:13 PM

i'd sign it.... if it would make a difference. but since it won't, being online and all, and since i'm canadian, no worries here

.... until they start attacking <b>us</b>, that is...

loxor · 09-23-2003, 02:30 AM

I think rather then signing a petition we shouold right to our congressmen and get them to recind the DMCA which is what the RIAA are using. But they do have a right to sue , i just think the way they are obtaining the information is not right...

09-12-2003, 06:28 PM	#2 (permalink)
meanSpleen Squid hat! Location: A Few Miles Away From Halx	I'm not signing it. As much as I think the RIAA is aproaching this the wrong way, they have every right to sue anyone they find downloading copyrighted mp3s. Its not like they didn't warn anyone. Besides, its the family's fault for not reading Kazaa's EULA and knowing Kazaa does not protect anyone from the unlawful download of any materials. Blame the parents, sue the girl. Good. __________________ Like TFP? Donate To Keep It Alive!!

09-12-2003, 10:15 PM	#4 (permalink)
Zello Crazy Location: Vincennes, IN	I have to agree with meanSpleen. I hate that the RIAA is suing people just to prove a point. The site says "Copyright law shouldn't make criminals out of 60 million Americans..." Maybe it shouldn't, but everyone downloading music (including me) is breaking the law. __________________ Sorry, you can not add yourself to your own list.

09-14-2003, 07:42 AM	#8 (permalink)
maximus Crazy Location: Pa	i signed that shit, fuck corperate america and the riaa. i can go to the library abd photocopy a copyrighted book, u gonna sue me then? we music sharers are not making a profit off downloading music, we are not selling it, just sharing it. what is the diffrence in dling a song off the internet and taping a movie on tv? i see no difference. mabee if the money grubbing music industry would cut down the monopoly they have on cds and give consumers fair prices, we would not dl as much...... __________________ i don't want to be lonely, i just want to be alone.

09-14-2003, 08:05 AM	#10 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	I won't sign. First of all, electronic petitions have zero weight, so signing one is fruitless. Second, I'm not going to sign something that says I agree with the person breaking the law. __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

09-15-2003, 11:37 AM	#13 (permalink)
JohnnyRock Addict Location: Taxachussetts	sorry. I can't fault anyone looking to protect their intellectual property and make some money-- even if I think they could go about it differently. __________________ Not only do I not know the answer...I don't even know what the question is!!!

09-12-2003, 10:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
Mr.Deflok Blood + Fire Location: New Zealand	This is a little hard to judge, she was doing something illegal and they can't blame ignorance for doing it because it's common knowledge that doing so is in fact illegal. However she is just 12 years old, unfair to sue her? Hard to say, it sounds cruel but if she went and killed someone and then said they'd throw her in a detention center would we be as shocked? I'm not sure where I stand on this one.

09-13-2003, 09:13 AM	#5 (permalink)
Ganguro Army of Me	a-fucking-men

09-13-2003, 12:06 PM	#6 (permalink)
juanvaldes Banned Location: shittown, CA	topic = music/RIAA forum = Music

09-13-2003, 01:41 PM	#7 (permalink)
crashoverride Crazy	some updates - RIAA got sued for amnesty offer A day after the Recording Industry Association of America filed a slew of lawsuits against alleged illegal song swappers, it became the target of legal action over its own "amnesty" program. California resident Eric Parke, on behalf of the general public of the state, filed a suit Tuesday against the trade association because of its amnesty, or "Clean Slate," program, a provisional shield it introduced Monday that allows people to avoid legal action by stepping forward and forfeiting any illegally traded songs. The suit, filed in the Marin Superior Court of California, charges that the RIAA's program is a deceptive and fraudulent business practice. It is "designed to induce members of the general public...to incriminate themselves and provide the RIAA and others with actionable admissions of wrongdoing under penalty of perjury while (receiving)...no legally binding release of claims...in return," according to the complaint. "This lawsuit seeks a remedy to stop the RIAA from engaging in unlawful, misleading and fraudulent business practices," the suit reads. The RIAA responded to the suit with a maxim: "No good deed goes unpunished, apparently." "It's also unfortunate that a lawyer would try to prevent others from getting the assurances they want that they will not be sued," an RIAA representative wrote in an e-mail. The complaint is the first legal retaliation to the RIAA's lawsuit campaign against individual file swappers. The trade group filed 261 lawsuits against computer users it said were exclusively "egregious" file swappers, marking the first time copyright laws have been used on a mass scale against individual Net users. The barrage of lawsuits signaled a turning point in the industry's three-year fight against online song-trading services such as Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster and one of the most controversial moments in the recording industry's digital history. On Tuesday, the RIAA settled its first case with Brianna Lahara, a 12-year-old New York resident. The recording industry agreed to drop its case against the preteen in exchange for $2,000, a sum considerably lower than previous settlement arrangements. Legal actions by the RIAA had been taken on a sporadic basis against operators of pirate servers or sites, but ordinary computer users have never before been at serious risk of liability for widespread behavior. After long years of avoiding direct conflict with file swappers who might also be music buyers, industry executives said they have lost patience. Monday's lawsuits are just the first wave of what the group said ultimately could be "thousands more" lawsuits filed over the next few months. Under the RIAA's "Clean Slate" program, file swappers must destroy any copies of copyrighted works they have downloaded from services such as Kazaa and sign a notarized affidavit pledging never to trade copyrighted works online again. But Ira Rothken, legal counsel for Parke, said after reviewing the RIAA's legal documents that the trade group provides no real amnesty for such file swappers. With the legalese, the trade group does not agree to destroy data or promise to protect users from further suits, Rothken said. "The legal documents only give one thing to people in return: that the RIAA won't cooperate," Rothken said. "The RIAA's legal document does not even prevent RIAA members from suing." The suit asks the court to enjoin the RIAA from falsely advertising its program.

09-14-2003, 08:01 AM	#9 (permalink)
essendoubleop Psycho	Was she sharing? I thought they only went after you if you were sharing? Time to fire up WASTE then...

09-15-2003, 12:33 PM	#14 (permalink)
earWIG Upright	No sympathy for the devil Hey, when did everybody become frigging lawyers? Screw the RAII and their high-dollar lawyers (who this is REALLY all about). Fair to say that no amount of "illegal" file swapping can begin to even the score between these record inductry scumbags and the public that has been getting reamed by them for at least 30 years. 18 bucks for a CD? And then they complain about people sharing? Ridiculous. And this whole rap they're putting out about the Artists being short-changed because of file-sharing is a JOKE. The artists have already been reamed and put up to dry by the time they even have a CD out to rip. If the artist wants to make a living, they'll have to do what they've always had to do - play gigs and sell t-shirts. Most artists have an atrocious "deal" with their label regarding sales - merely a couple of pennies on the dollar. And the live thing is also going away since most venues and ticket outlets have begun major gauging in that arena as well. Gimmie a break.

09-15-2003, 08:13 PM	#15 (permalink)
mrcraptastic Tilted	i'd sign it.... if it would make a difference. but since it won't, being online and all, and since i'm canadian, no worries here .... until they start attacking <b>us</b>, that is...

09-23-2003, 02:30 AM	#16 (permalink)
loxor Upright Location: Kalamazoo . Mi	I think rather then signing a petition we shouold right to our congressmen and get them to recind the DMCA which is what the RIAA are using. But they do have a right to sue , i just think the way they are obtaining the information is not right...