Music industry watch

RIAA lawsuit sillyness

The RIAA sued a 12 year old girl this week, and now her single mother has settled the suit for $2000. The Slashdot article sums it up real well:

It looks like the RIAA has rushed to settle with 12-year-old Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter's song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. Said Brianna: 'I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love.' What a relief this must be for the Rolling Stones.

Heh! Emmet Plant, of Xiph.org fame, has taken up a collection to cover the $2000 for the mom. So far he has collected over $700. Not bad, and thanks for taking the lead on this!

Makes me wonder -- if the community bands together to pay the lawsuit settlement for a fellow file trader, isn't that some indirect form of licensing the music from the labels?? Maybe we should make a giant fund that pays out the settlements for the suits -- everyone pays in $10/month and keeps using Kazaa or whatever. When its your turn to get nailed by a suit, you settle and the fund pays the settlement.

A little too silly, I'm afraid. :-)

Posted by Mayhem at September 10, 2003 10:50 AM