AfterDawn: Tech news

12-year-old's mom settles with RIAA, P2P association pays the bill

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 10 Sep 2003 2:22 User comments (17)

12-year-old's mom settles with RIAA, P2P association pays the bill The news story that we published yesterday, where RIAA sued a 12-year-old girl for illegal file sharing, has evolved since.
Girl's mother has now settled the case with RIAA, in order to avoid costly legal process and has agreed to pay $2,000 in damages to the RIAA. After the settlement was published, a file-sharing companies' lobby group,

P2P United, has stepped into the limelight and promised to pay the little girl's RIAA bill.

"We do not condone copyright infringement, but someone has to draw the line to call attention to a system that permits multinational corporations with phenomenal financial and political resources to strong-arm 12-year-olds and their families in public housing the way this sorry episode dramatizes," said Adam Eisgrau, the executive director of P2P United. According to him, the group has no intention of paying for other file-swapper's legal fees.

According to newspaper sources, Brianna Lahara is a 12-year-old schoolgirl who lives with her mother in public housing in New York City. She was one of the targets of RIAA's latest witch hunt in which the association sued over 250 individuals across the Unites States.



P2P United is a lobby group that represents many P2P networks and companies and tries to lobby in Washington DC to get through laws that would force music companies to license their content for P2P networks with fair pricing models. Association currently represents companies and P2P networks such as eDonkey, Grokster and BearShare.

Source: News.com

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17 user comments

110.9.2003 15:09

RIAA has got to be one of the most uncool and shameful companies for going after 12 year olds.Shame on them,not the girl.There are enough of us adults to pick on.If they must get someone,then at least go after the pro's that copy to sell.Seen this years ago with cassettes but RIAA is out of control themselves.

210.9.2003 16:24

So NOW they make it $2,000. Don't want to be cast in the bad news spotlight eh?? You ****ing mother****ers. You do realise that if it would have been any other Average Joe being sued, they would have just sued $150,000 a song. As always, **** the RIAA!!!

310.9.2003 17:40
tinfoil
Inactive

P2P United is footing the bill, eh? Fantastic. I will have to stop by there with my Paypal account or my visa to help out. This is negative press, and the more we as a buying public can drag this out the better. The more the mainstream press runs with this the worse the RIAA looks.

410.9.2003 18:21

negative press indeeed. It's only going to get worse. How many other 12yr olds are there doing this? ALOT. Common now. Tinfoil is absolutly right. The more we drag this out the better.RIAA must look like the bad guy in the press, and I think that is what is going to happen. Just what the doctor ordered

510.9.2003 20:49
joy53
Inactive

That RIAA is so wrong for going after a 12 year old child. This is the worst. They will get theirs. The Good Lord is not sleep. What goes around comes around.

610.9.2003 21:59

There are some really sick people in this world even those that would commit murder....hopefully one of those people will find their way into the RIAA's main headquarters with an mp-40.

711.9.2003 01:38

You know, if it wasn't such a shameful situation, it would almost be funny, as we watch the RIAA continue to make one bonehead move after another. It's interesting to see, as time unfolds, the various depths to which the RIAA is constantly plunging. Hell, why not just round up all the offenders and burn 'em at the stake? Or bring back Public Floggings? (That's be cool!). Maybe they could hire roof-top snipers to 'take out' the computer monitors of all suspected P2P downloaders. Hey! I know! How about a "Rat Line"? "www.riaa_ratline.com" or something? You could anonymously rat on all your friends and relatives in return for free cds and stuff. The possibilities are endless!

811.9.2003 04:55

The RIAA has alot of nerve to start with kids.... studies show that 40% of american kids who are doing all they can to hold a passing grades have computers @ home and are stuggleing to do something to make it in this world and the Riaa should give Amisty across the board to all starting nowand then nail any who keep on doing it ..... but the money grubbers want to get the kids almost like the priest at your local catlok church... when Microsoft fist lanched XP in their advertizment was a statement that with xp it was easier to down load songs and burn them or convert them for your mp3 players ... again no one saw the lawsuets coming.... also the riaa never implamented any anti-web or anti-p2p software in the music.... and they could have then if someone had de-coded it then complain ... the movie industry will follow next.. but they need to look in the movie houses for the answer not in everyones computer if the fined the cinams for alowing the taping or paid for people to sit and watch for it ,it would stop who wants to be busted... why cant our goverment make them show that the tried instead. If I put all may stuff out on the sidewalk and leave, will it all be there when I return .....? nope and that would be my fault for not safeguarding it . so why is it our fault that they dont fix the cds ?

911.9.2003 06:39

boycott boycott boycott do not buy another Cd for 6 months.

1011.9.2003 08:34

Don't stop at six months. Continue the CD boycott until the music industry reduces prices to less than 10 bucks and began to produce quality music. No more 1 hit cds by these manufactured boy bands and teenie bopper divettes

1111.9.2003 10:11

1 year or six months it dosnt matter the riaa is nothing but a team of asshole who find joy in hurting the lives of a 12 year old so now we know who she is and her families plyte in life where they live and we as humans not the corperate money grubbers want to help and feel sad for the whole family ... but hey the riaa want you to think of her and her family as the next "bundies or Chathlic Priest "and anouse them as evil.... well in my book the only people who are evil are the Artist who complain about something that they should have fixed.....years ago... the only way to fix this is to incorparate a webscrambler... or something and to give all amisty to all up to this date......

1211.9.2003 10:18

What a shame!!!! These kids could be out earning mega bucks selling "stuff" on the street corners to buy these cd's But NO---- they're copying music because they can't afford the outrageous prices that we are being charged. I say----YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!

1311.9.2003 11:49

Saw a national TV news story yesterday aimed at daft parents touting kid's "illegal" downloading as the big new worry for mom and dad. That's the spin the RIAA got from its media cronies yesterday in the mainstream. Not "RIAA sues 12 year old". The public is in the dark on this one. And, almost nobody even at this forum is talking about what a terrible legal precedent the whole subpoena process of the ISPs sets. To me that's a bigger problem in the long run. That's about basic privacy and civil liberty issues, which I think is a bit more important than "free" downloads...

1411.9.2003 14:53

In the United States of America we have one of the strongest Constitutions ever written, designed "by the people, for the people and of the people", and the people (citizens of the USA) have the right to be protected from McCarthy type strong arm tactical infringements. RIAA has without a doubt encroached on the rights and liberties of the people. It is understandable that if an individual or company, without the retail/wholesale licensing agreement from an entertainment recording business, copies and sells a record, DVD or CD (and sells is the key word), without the permission of the originator, is liable for prosecution. However, after one purchases one of the above mentioned items and chooses to freely share this item without fiscal compensation, then it should be their right. An individual's computer is not unlike a public or private library. And libraries do share/distribute all forms of mass communique type materials without due process of the law in regard to prosecution, that is. It is time that someone hires an attorney or team of attorneys the calibre of Dershowitz or Cochran to put-up the strongest and severest form of defence in behalf of indivudual liberties in this regard. As citizens, it is time we fight back. A strong boycott, the likes of simply not purchasing or renting these companies materials for a month or two would be a very strong show of force and support. After-all, it is our money that these "money-grubbers" are after. I believe President Clinton passed a law to protect private citizens involving their computers and the use of the Internet, which is a public domain--just like a library. The RIAA's actions are not much different that Adolph Hitler's. He burned books and other forms of communique that the general public and citizens of Germany utilized for entertainment and education. And the RIAA is attempting to do the same thing!

155.10.2003 06:22
bossins
Inactive

gbjay1 .havent seen a response since 09/11/003..im with you all the way in what you have written free Enterprise4ever

1622.1.2008 18:53
aeonflux1
Inactive

i dont believe this crap putting a bloody 12 year old girl in court. IN COURT!!!! what do these people think that judge should have thrown out the bloody case. come on lads. a 12 year old. my my. what do these people think would happen. the lil girl would take out a loan and pay em. jeez the stupidity of some people.

1722.1.2008 20:36

The young lady is now 17 years of age, and I hope she's downloading a ton of free songs to her heart's content.

The RIAA is a far different animal (but still an animal) from what it was 5 years ago. The beasts have been mortally wounded, dripping a trail of red throughout the forest trail this past half-decade. Methinks they have morphed into whatever they can (accepted today's web-based realities) in order to survive. Right now they're an endangered species being stalked by hunters with bows-&-arrows, and I wouldn't mind having a few RIAA stuffed-heads mounted on my rec-room wall. :-)

5 years running, and an old post resurfaces!!!! (Kinda makes one cringe if he has written any 'bonehead'-type stuff in years gone by, huh?) :-)

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