RIAA drops lawsuit against 66 year old Mac user

mcq

Heh, RIAA looks like they made a slight mistake.



From San Francisco Gate online/AP:



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...155EDT0579.DTL

Quote:

In a possible case of mistaken identity, the recording industry has withdrawn a lawsuit accusing a 66-year-old woman of illegally downloading and sharing more than 2,000 songs online, including the rap song "I'm a Thug."



Sarah Seabury Ward and her husband use their computer and Internet connection to send e-mail to their children and grandchildren, said Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Cindy Cohn, who has worked with the family.



And the Wards use a Macintosh, which cannot run the software needed for the Kazaa file-sharing service they are accused of using illegally.



The Newbury woman was one of 261 defendants sued by the Recording Industry Association of America this month for alleged illegal file-sharing of copyright material. The industry threatened to hold her liable for up to $150,000 for each song.



The RIAA withdrew the case Friday, calling the move a "gesture of good faith" but telling Ward's attorney the organization will continue to investigate and reserves the right to refile the lawsuit.



RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss said Wednesday the group still believes it traced the alleged illegal actions to the right Internet Protocol, or IP, address and account.



Cohn said she expects more cases like the Wards because Internet service providers like Comcast, used by the Wards, do not assign IP addresses to any one user but shuffle them around.



Comcast spokeswoman Sarah Eder declined to comment on Ward's case, but said the company has helped the recording industry to match IP addresses with users' names in cases where Comcast is legally required to do so.



Weiss said this was the only case the RIAA had withdrawn.

luca

This is pathetic. They may as well take a big bin of names of people that have internet access and just draw randomly to determine who they're going to sue, because it would be almost as accurate and a lot cheaper. And then they try to pull a publicity stunt by calling it a "gesture of good will" that they dismissed the case! Seriously, they should be apologizing to this woman and her family for causing problems because of THEIR mistake due to THEIR intrusive and unfair methods.



Stupid RIAA. Just digging themselves deeper and deeper into the hole. I hope they die sometime. I know that SOMETHING is going to happen, and fairly soon too, because this sort of crap can't go on for long. But I wonder how much longer it will go before it boils over or something and there's a landmark supreme court case or something.

matt danger

That's such crap I can't put into words how angry that makes me. I will laugh myself to tears when the RIAA falls.

jimdreamworx

Dropped?



"the organization will continue to investigate and reserves the right to refile the lawsuit."



You never know... this evil person may be pulling the wool over the eyes of the RIAA, and we can't let her get away with it.



So this is what the money I pay to buy CDs is used to sustain.

Sigh!

thunderpoit

Quote:

And the Wards use a Macintosh, which cannot run the software needed for the Kazaa file-sharing service they are accused of using illegally.

not that im siding with the RIAA here, but that statement is not true. i doubt these people ever knew about it, but Poisoned can access kazaa's network and download from its users.

luca

Quote:

Originally posted by ThunderPoit

not that im siding with the RIAA here, but that statement is not true. i doubt these people ever knew about it, but Poisoned can access kazaa's network and download from its users.

Yeah, like a 66-year-old lady knows what "Poisoned" is. Are there any Kazaa clients for OS X that actually let you upload to the network? I bet not. The only other way is virtual PC, and I seriously doubt she would be able to figure out how to get it to work. Even I have problems setting up VPC.

argento

And don't you know that all 66 year old ladies are down with "Sir Thugs alot" or whatever rap song they say she downloaded.

alcimedes

that would be funny as hell to be using kazaa via virtual PC just to **** with the RIAA.

luca

Quote:

Originally posted by Argento

And don't you know that all 66 year old ladies are down with "Sir Thugs alot" or whatever rap song they say she downloaded.

"I'm A Thug" by Trick Daddy.



EDIT: Incidentally, Trick Daddy also did "Shut Yo ****in' Face" for the South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut Soundtrack.

thunderpoit

the point im trying to make is that just because we are mac users dosent mean that we are out of the RIAA's scope, k?



i do not know if poisoned interfaces w/ the kazaa network enough where a kazaa user can dl from a poisoned client.



i never said that a 66 yr. old grandma knows what poisoned is, i was simply saying that the statement wasnt true.

argento

Excerpts of I'm a thug:



And I'm representing thug shit

This who I roll with

Watch them niggas that's gonna love this

Niggas who out on bond

On the run

Got 10 years on parole

Since you can't say it dog I'ma say it for ya'll

Mother**** the po-po's

**** the judge and CEO's

**** the DA and PO's

**** the family of the victim

Witness that's snitchin ass hoes nigga



Can't you just see a grandma listening to that?



In we're goign to sue people lets just sue them for wasting Bandwith on this crappy music

powerdoc

Quote:

Originally posted by Argento

Excerpts of I'm a thug:



And I'm representing thug shit

This who I roll with

Watch them niggas that's gonna love this

Niggas who out on bond

On the run

Got 10 years on parole

Since you can't say it dog I'ma say it for ya'll

Mother**** the po-po's

**** the judge and CEO's

**** the DA and PO's

**** the family of the victim

Witness that's snitchin ass hoes nigga



Can't you just see a grandma listening to that?



In we're goign to sue people lets just sue them for wasting Bandwith on this crappy music

RIAA should give money to people who accept to download even illegaly this song ...