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Woman with no computer 'settles' with RIAA over piracy claim

21 June 2009 1:22 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 25 comments

Although the big news has been surrounding the RIAA and their decision over file sharer Jammie Thomas, another piece of interesting news regarding the trade group has surfaced today as well.

Mavis Roy, a woman who was sued by the RIAA over alleged file sharing, has 'settled' today with the trade group, however there is much more to it.

On the dates in which she is alleged to have pirated the music, Roy did not own a computer, and her stories check out. She tossed out the first written threat from the RIAA thinking it was a joke and was promptly sued afterwards. Luckily, a law student took up her case and Roy and the RIAA settled today for the lofty sum of $0 USD.

Despite this victory in court, Roy is "still unsettled that the record companies are able to treat upstanding American citizens in this way. Invading people�s privacy and accusing people of things that don�t even make sense. It is such a sad waste of the courts time."

Moby may be correct in saying it is time for this group to disband.

Permalink to this article

DOJ calls Jammie Thomas' $1.92 million file sharing fine "constitutional" (15 August 2009)

Jammie Rasset-Thomas to appeal damage award (2 July 2009)

The Pirate Bay's video sharing site is coming (28 June 2009)

Even RIAA witness 'shocked' by Jammie Thomas verdict (23 June 2009)

Jammie Thomas can possibly use bankruptcy to get out of RIAA debt (20 June 2009)

RIAA needs to be disbanded, says Moby (20 June 2009)

Jammie Thomas loses case to RIAA (18 June 2009)

Judge rejects experts employed by RIAA (21 May 2009)

RIAA lawyers oppose Jammie Thomas getting time to find a lawyer (19 May 2009)

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Lothros (Junior Member) 21 June 2009 1:50
I find it amazing that people haven't just used PGP. PGP your PC, "forget" your password and Plead the 5th. They cannot prove anything (except someone hacked into your wireless perhaps) and the case has no Evidence. [ + quote]
Matt898 (Junior Member) 21 June 2009 3:44
WOW these guys at RIAA are have a set of balls like I have never seen before and they just keeps amazing me, with the shit they manage to get away with. How do they manage to sue someone for file sharing when she didn't even have a PC? [ + quote]
Serialluv (Newbie) 21 June 2009 5:47
*Originally posted by Matt898:* WOW these guys at RIAA are have a set of balls like I have never seen before and they just keeps amazing me, with the shit they manage to get away with. How do they manage to sue someone for file sharing when she didn't even have a PC? Because she settled out of court, I would have fought this one, even the states couldn't have found her guilty without a computer. [ + quote]
Josipher (Junior Member) 21 June 2009 7:04
its crap like this that makes me go to bed with a big fat smile knowing im not living in the US.i laugh thinking bout popular US vids like "college girls gone wild" as i think of "capitalistic liberalism gone bad, greedy pigs gone wild" and the hell with civil rights [ + quote]
Hopium (Newbie) 21 June 2009 10:19
*Originally posted by Josipher:* its crap like this that makes me go to bed with a big fat smile knowing im not living in the US.i laugh thinking bout popular US vids like "college girls gone wild" as i think of "capitalistic liberalism gone bad, greedy pigs gone wild" and the hell with civil rights i hope we invade your country soon [ + quote]
Edikiss (Newbie) 21 June 2009 10:34
LOl Thats funny.Hopium [ + quote]
Matt898 (Junior Member) 21 June 2009 12:58
LOL [ + quote]
wsnet (Newbie) 21 June 2009 14:29
*Quote:* *Originally posted by Josipher:* its crap like this that makes me go to bed with a big fat smile knowing im not living in the US.i laugh thinking bout popular US vids like "college girls gone wild" as i think of "capitalistic liberalism gone bad, greedy pigs gone wild" and the hell with civil rights i hope we invade your country soon @ Hopium A perfect example why America is the most hated country in the world All Josipher was saying is he is glad he does NOT live in the US as this threads topic would not happen in other country's other than the US The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! [ + quote]
nintenut (Senior Member) 21 June 2009 15:26
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Originally posted by Josipher:* its crap like this that makes me go to bed with a big fat smile knowing im not living in the US.i laugh thinking bout popular US vids like "college girls gone wild" as i think of "capitalistic liberalism gone bad, greedy pigs gone wild" and the hell with civil rights i hope we invade your country soon @ Hopium A perfect example why America is the most hated country in the world All Josipher was saying is he is glad he does NOT live in the US as this threads topic would not happen in other country's other than the US The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! Which is why it was a funny thing to say. [ + quote]
WmS (Newbie) 21 June 2009 16:21
The good news is that absurd legal awards will not help the RIAA to sustain their members� stranglehold on distribution. They might as well be selling typewriters. Their desperate action against Thomas-Rasset, like those of a cornered (paper) tiger, was a tacit acknowledgement of their future. Their �mission� to promote their member�s �creative and financial vitality� is a red herring. Their real mission is to protect the financial interests of distributors. Anybody want to buy a typewriter? And where is it written that a recording artist should make 100 times that of a teacher? Artistic creativity will survive the demise of RIAA. To the RIAA, if you are looking for people who share music files I stand up and say: �I am Spartigus.� [ + quote]
windsong (Junior Member) 21 June 2009 16:25
*Originally posted by Lothros:* I find it amazing that people haven't just used PGP. PGP your PC, "forget" your password and Plead the 5th. They cannot prove anything (except someone hacked into your wireless perhaps) and the case has no Evidence. Well obviously youve never heard of "handy keylogger". Once that is installed, it runs in svhost.exe, only picked up by programs like spybot, etc. Then what good is PGP? I had a pgp hard disk and i discovered it on my drive and thus all passwords were comprised. Besides, you dont think LEA is smart enough to remotely install it on your machine if they know your IP? Then there is "Magic Lantern" that the feds use. Not saying pgp is worthless..but like TOR, it does nothing if you do not use it intelligently. Now, the RIAA probably would never go to such lengths, but lea surely would, and in my view its only a matter of time before they are hired goons for the RIAA (if we the people allow them to) [ + quote]
nintenut (Senior Member) 21 June 2009 17:24
*Originally posted by WmS:* The good news is that absurd legal awards will not help the RIAA to sustain their members� stranglehold on distribution. They might as well be selling typewriters. Their desperate action against Thomas-Rasset, like those of a cornered (paper) tiger, was a tacit acknowledgement of their future. Their �mission� to promote their member�s �creative and financial vitality� is a red herring. Their real mission is to protect the financial interests of distributors. Anybody want to buy a typewriter? And where is it written that a recording artist should make 100 times that of a teacher? Artistic creativity will survive the demise of RIAA. To the RIAA, if you are looking for people who share music files I stand up and say: �I am Spartigus.� Spartigus? Spartacus' nerdy younger brother? [ + quote]
ElTwo (Newbie) 21 June 2009 17:42
*Originally posted by WmS:* The good news is that absurd legal awards will not help the RIAA to sustain their members� stranglehold on distribution. They might as well be selling typewriters. Their desperate action against Thomas-Rasset, like those of a cornered (paper) tiger, was a tacit acknowledgement of their future. Their �mission� to promote their member�s �creative and financial vitality� is a red herring. Their real mission is to protect the financial interests of distributors. Anybody want to buy a typewriter? And where is it written that a recording artist should make 100 times that of a teacher? Artistic creativity will survive the demise of RIAA. To the RIAA, if you are looking for people who share music files I stand up and say: �I am Sparticus.� Perfectly said. "I am Sparticus." [ + quote]
Hopium (Newbie) 21 June 2009 19:09
*Quote:* The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! lol your an idiot if you think this is only in the states in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI if anything i would say that since you couldnt understand the facetiousness of my statement your a "complete cockhead" [ + quote]
wsnet (Newbie) 21 June 2009 20:11
*Quote:* *Quote:* The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! lol your an idiot if you think this is only in the states in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI if anything i would say that since you couldnt understand the facetiousness of my statement your a "complete cockhead" LOL What I mean is someone getting charged with piracy that does not own a Computer!Though you not smart enough to work that out LMAO! [ + quote]
DVDBack23 (Staff Member) 21 June 2009 22:05
Now now kids, back on topic ;) [ + quote]
Josipher (Junior Member) 23 June 2009 10:19
*Quote:* *Quote:* The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! lol your an idiot if you think this is only in the states in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI indeed you are an idiot,cockhead and whatever the gentleman said.and just so you know, not every country has an riaa counterpart like u claim so rashly.US citizens may pride themselves in their freedoms but in truth theyre herded like sheep by these copyright lobbyists and greedy companies that have virtually taken over the country.you live in a country where its legal or otherwise people turn a blind eye when theyre internet traffic is being monitored and innocent people get prosecuted ridiculous amounts of money for sharing a few measly songs each worth almost 80,000 times less than what is required by the verdict to pay. i am not against the US quite the opposite your goverment helps mine quite and i admire those people who make calls against the riaa publicly. yet im just glad to have the fundamental freedom of roaming the internet and doing what i want without the fear of someone watching my every move .im also glad im not a complete imbecile like you who doesnt really have an opinion on the articles he reads so he just says something in the sad hope of making someone laugh. peace [ + quote]
Serialluv (Newbie) 23 June 2009 10:40
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Quote:* The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! lol your an idiot if you think this is only in the states in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI indeed you are an idiot,cockhead and whatever the gentleman said.and just so you know, not every country has an riaa counterpart like u claim so rashly.US citizens may pride themselves in their freedoms but in truth theyre herded like sheep by these copyright lobbyists and greedy companies that have virtually taken over the country.you live in a country where its legal or otherwise people turn a blind eye when theyre internet traffic is being monitored and innocent people get prosecuted ridiculous amounts of money for sharing a few measly songs each worth almost 80,000 times less than what is required by the verdict to pay. i am not against the US quite the opposite your goverment helps mine quite and i admire those people who make calls against the riaa publicly. yet im just glad to have the fundamental freedom of roaming the internet and doing what i want without the fear of someone watching my every move .im also glad im not a complete imbecile like you who doesnt really have an opinion on the articles he reads so he just says something in the sad hope of making someone laugh. peace Just out of curiousity where are you from??? [ + quote]
forestm33 (Newbie) 23 June 2009 14:57
*Originally posted by Hopium:* *Quote:* in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI You make a good point but actually few Canadians even realize that it's currently LEGAL to download music in their country. They have a tax on all writable media and on media players - writable cd's, dvd's, blu-ray's, mp3 players, etc. A creative xen video player has a $25 Canadian dollar extra fee on it before tax in Canada. This money goes to SOCAN who collects and distributes royalties based on the downloads and radio play they monitor. Of course their monitoring isn't very consistent. (yes, they track your downloads and assess artist royalties in canada partly based on this) It isn't the best managed organization but it's better than nothing. The biggest problem for Canadians is that corporate America is ignoring their NAFTA treaty (North American Free Trade Agreement) and stores like Amazon.com do not offer full album mp3 downloads on Amazon.ca like they do in the U.S. as a sort of sanction. Yet a Canadian can run across the border and buy the cd... what's the difference? There are American shows that Canadians watch daily on cable but if they go to the website (say MTV) to watch the show online it will say "this content is not available outside of the U.S." - how is that fair when they DO have access to it via cable yet for some reason they're access is restricted via the net? There are a lot of oddities like this going on and the big businesses in the U.S. are constantly putting pressure on Canada to change it's laws since they don't like the solution the Canadian government chose to use. [ + quote]
Interestx (Junior Member) 24 June 2009 17:36
It's true. Not every country is insane enough to treat a mere breach of copyright as if it were a most serious criminal event and not every country is deranged enough to want to monitise all the elements of our culture by making that copyright last effectively indefinitely. But it is true that the USA is working hard on behalf of it's music & movie businesses to remedy that and spread their counter-productive and vicious stupidity wherever they can. The shame is that some of our countries are led by Govs only to willing to go along with this nonsense (see the UK and France recently for instance). Thankfully there are still some are not so crazy, supine and spineless (see the EU & the French Courts). [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 24 June 2009 17:38
tiswas (Newbie) 26 June 2009 3:11
Great so the woman got away with a 0$ fine because she settled out of court... but the RIAA have now give that woman a criminal record for nothing she apparently is not guilty of. That really sucks - I disgusted that this group is allowed to get away with the intimidation and heavy handed approaches [ + quote]
s4s3s2s1 (Newbie) 26 June 2009 9:38
*Quote:* *Quote:* *Quote:* *Quote:* The RIAA is walking all over peoples rights and all you have to say is "I hope we invade your country soon",all that proves is your a complete cockhead! lol your an idiot if you think this is only in the states in case you havent paid attention go look at the pirate bay spectrial or france and italy let me think oh yeah and canada and romania its just not called the riaa where you live. its called the IFPI indeed you are an idiot,cockhead and whatever the gentleman said.and just so you know, not every country has an riaa counterpart like u claim so rashly.US citizens may pride themselves in their freedoms but in truth theyre herded like sheep by these copyright lobbyists and greedy companies that have virtually taken over the country.you live in a country where its legal or otherwise people turn a blind eye when theyre internet traffic is being monitored and innocent people get prosecuted ridiculous amounts of money for sharing a few measly songs each worth almost 80,000 times less than what is required by the verdict to pay. i am not against the US quite the opposite your goverment helps mine quite and i admire those people who make calls against the riaa publicly. yet im just glad to have the fundamental freedom of roaming the internet and doing what i want without the fear of someone watching my every move .im also glad im not a complete imbecile like you who doesnt really have an opinion on the articles he reads so he just says something in the sad hope of making someone laugh. peace Just out of curiousity where are you from??? lol silly american always starting a fight. dont you have enough wars on the go? be like your neighbor to the north and mind your own goddamm business. EH. it wont hurt you to just be nice you know. [ + quote]
Mez (Senior Member) 26 June 2009 9:51
Well, the RIAA can only wield this kind of power because of the corupt politicians. They are a blight of society. [ + quote]
vyze (Newbie) 26 June 2009 11:36
*Originally posted by Mez:* Well, the RIAA can only wield this kind of power because of the corupt politicians. They are a blight of society. Glad to get back on topic. I'm surprised that she settled for $0. I would of made the RIAA pay ME for slander, liable wasting my time and pressing charges with ZERO proof of any sort. [ + quote]
hastypete (Newbie) 26 June 2009 14:05
*Originally posted by Josipher:* "capitalistic liberalism gone bad, greedy pigs gone wild" and the hell with civil rights You have made an oxymoron. It is the conservatives who are more pro-capitalistic than the liberals. Liberals tend to lean more socialistic. I'm a US citizen and I agree that capitalism has gone way bad in this country. Everyone is all about me,me,me. What can I get out of life?" with no regard to the effects on society. Pure capitalism is as evil as pure socialism. [ + quote]