12-Year-Old Girl Settles With RIAA
from the $2,000-gone dept
Brianna LaHara, the 12-year-old girl getting a ridiculous amount of publicity for being one of the children sued by the RIAA has very quickly settled her case with the RIAA for $2,000. Clearly, the RIAA realized that this was looking like bad publicity and decided to end it as quickly as possible. Previous settlements had been for about $3,000 and the RIAA said that anyone who waited until they got sued wouldn’t be able to settle for quite so low. I guess if you’re a 12-year-old who is about to make the RIAA look bad, then the rules change. Of course, now they’ll turn it into a “positive” for themselves by using it as an example of why others should pay up and settle as well. They even got her to become a poster-child for the “reformed music sharer” by getting her to say: “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.” Meanwhile, there is still a chance that the publicity generated from suing a 12-year-old is leading to more backlash from Congress. A Senator was quoted asking the RIAA’s Cary Sherman: “Are you headed to junior high schools to round up the usual suspects?”
Comments on “12-Year-Old Girl Settles With RIAA”
I've been sued too....
Unbelievable!!! I just found out I was named as a defendant. I don’t even have Kazaa – but I do have an open WIFI. They are suing for $150K per song. That’s the type of nation that we live in right now. Rights to privacy are eroding fast, and aparently they can sue even if someone spoofs your ip or hacks your wifi.
Anything else we can do?? ACLU alert? Write letters? I am just trying to find a lawyer right now. This is Nazi tactics – they make you sign an affidavit admitting guilt, and then they will give you a deal. This is basic freedom people. It’s not like any artist will benefit directly – it’s the record companies.
I don’t think I’ll ever purchase a CD again. Apparently big business wins… but I’ll do everything in my power to take them down from now on.
Re: I've been sued too....
I’d contact the EFF if I were you.
Another thing you might want to do is make a big stink about it. So far, it appears the RIAA is doing everything they can to “shush” publicity when it looks bad for them. If you can prove that it wasn’t you, I’d go public to the press with a statement.
However, you should definitely talk to a lawyer before you take my advice.
Re: I've been sued too....
More on this. According to this article at News.com, Berkeley law professor Mark Lemley thinks that your kind of case is exactly what might derail the RIAA’s plans, since having open WiFi is not illegal, and the RIAA would need to track down whoever actually did the sharing. If that is the case, you might want to contact Professor Lemley.
Re: I've been sued too....
You can do nothing.
You allowed file sharing.
You violated copyright laws.
Pay your bill and continue to purchase our products at whatever price we tell you is fair.
Re: I've been sued too....
Here is something I found @: http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/7745
Subpoenaed by RIAA?
We received this from TechTV and wanted to pass it along. They even mentioned the possibility of a hidden face interview, you can discuss the details with them…Bill Evans founder of boycott-riaa.com
TechTV is a live news program produced in San Francisco. We’re looking for people who have been subpoenaed by the RIAA.
If you’ve received one of these subpoenas, we’d like to interview you and get your side of this story. We can come to you and conduct the interview in the city where you live or work — anywhere in the United States.
Please contact me ASAP at (415) 355-4136 or jonathanbrown(at)techtvcorp.com
Thank you,
Jonathan Brown
No Subject Given
It disgusts me that they settled with the 12-year-old for money! For goodness sake her family lives in public housing! I’m sure $2000 sounds like chump change to the scumbag asshole lawyers, but to a poor person it’s a huge sum of money.
Re: No Subject Given
How exactly does one sue a 12 year old ?
And how did she pay her fine ? – In pennies ?
For 2 grand the RIAA got the worst publicity it could ever have gotten.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
I applaud the RIAA for its publicity nightmare as a result of this case against a 12 year old girl.
I can’t wait till I am named because my screen name on Kazaa is MitchBrianwolsucksASS@Kazaa.com
It should be quite amusing when I receive my case and I go to the media identified as ” MitchBrainwolSucksASS ” for my screen name.
Bet my suit gets quickly dropped.
Gorilla/Guerilla
As a musician, I’d like to think I created a viable distribution means so I don’t have to send a 1200lb gorilla after “tween” file traders, especially to ferret out a coupla grand from a publicly housed single-mother. After conversing earlier today with a couple of friends (signed to a major label, incidentally), I get the distinct impression a lot of musical artists have no idea what’s being carried out in their name.
Re: clueless
When is the RIAA going to “get it” that we the consumer are sick and tired of paying fifteen to twenty bucks for lame-ass CDs? About once a year I’ll buy a CD that acutally surprises me by having several good songs on it instead of just the one you hear all the time on the radio. Nothing pisses me off more than listening to a new CD and realizing that there’s just the one good song there and the rest is filler.
I also get tired of musicians bitching about music sharing when they’re on tour charging seventy bucks to let idiots watch them lip-sync their latest bubblegum hits. Metallica might have a better argument against music swapping if they’d put out some decent new music for a change. I don’t download music, but I don’t buy a hell of a lot of CDs anymore either. The music industry killed off the venerable 45 RPM and never replaced it with anything viable. CD singles usually cost about eight bucks, which is what albums used to cost. It’s just too damn bad that the RIAA doesn’t realize that downloading could be the tool to save the music industry.