12-Year-Old Sued For Music Downloading

[Caelestia]

Tuesday , September 09, 2003

NEW YORK — The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers — including a 12-year-old New York City girl who thought downloading songs was fun.

Brianna LaHara said she was frightened to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued yesterday by giant music companies in federal courts around the country.

"I got really scared. My stomach is all turning," Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother.

"I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?"


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html (cont'd)

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Poor thing I doubt she's the kingpin of music piracy

And check out the typo "teh apartment."

 

[Rusty]

Dirty criminal bitch, I hope she goes down with the rest of them.

 

[duckattack]

Does the RIAA even have a PR department?

 

[MightyDrynwhyl]

why is she being sued for paying to download music? and better yet why fucking nursery rhymes??

 

[Steve]

Time to shoot every fucking member of the RIAA...
has been for years...

 

[The Lord]

I thought that people who paid for the music were alright and wouldn't get sued...hmm..must've been wrong.

 

[duckattack]

Time to shoot every fucking member of the RIAA...
has been for years...

If they keep doing shit like this, we won't need to... They're digging their own graves, cutting their own throats, and shooting themselves in the foot all at the same time. I'm loving it!

 

[MightyDrynwhyl]

if the RIAA is going to commit suicide, can we kill Tipper Gore? you know..for the fuck of it?

 

[duckattack]

if the RIAA is going to commit suicide, can we kill Tipper Gore? you know..for the fuck of it?

I insist!

 

[DotNoir]

I thought that people who paid for the music were alright and wouldn't get sued...hmm..must've been wrong.

Where did they say they were paying for the music? Service fee means the internet connection fee in this case... (imo)

 

[Fuþorc]

We couldn't have a good president because of Al Gore.

Anyway, I'd like them to sue me. They aren't the law, and I would be glad to press charges for Tresspassing.

Thank God for the Fourth Admendment.:hotjump:

 

[Stoner Sioux]

Oh well, I wonder how much they will get out of her since she lives in the projects.

 

[Demonic Rapture]

We're beginning to sue 12 year olds in this country. OK.


The way I figure it, they should be paying ME for all of the goddamn CD's I've bought for $20 and ended up only listening to 2 goddamn songs off of the thing.

 

[psykopain]

$150,000.00 per song?.......settle for $3,000.00?........i throw them a doller per song. fuck the RIAA, i wounder how much they get from that....hmmm. sounds like they got a good job huh.....wtf.......and i thought a under age kid couldnt get sued......or did i miss something.

 

[Profanity]

People who download music deserve to be sued and yes children as well. If a 12 year old killed a baby should they go unpinished as well?

 

[psykopain]

so then everyone who ever recorded off the radio, and from a friends CD, tape, or albums should get sued as well.......to me its the same......if u dont make money from downloading how can u be sued......its just bullshit to sue someone who didnt make money from it.

 

[Dark_Jester]

Potayto potahto, either way, music download has increased the amount of CD's I've bought, not decreased it...then again, that wouldn't bother the RIAA because the songs I download aren't the teeny-bopping hip-hop off the major labels anyway...besides, they can only prosecute people in America only, thats the only place they have jurisdiction. Either way, I've deleted my p2p because its too much hassle...guess the bands I order CD's off have to suffer, but hey, thats progress right? Eliminate the small player so the big player gets more money for sitting there looking pretty

Edit: Profanity, can't tell if you're trying to be humourous or not, but its all a matter of degree, there's a big difference between murdering a baby and downloading an mp3, and to categorise them into the same area of severity would make that legal system pretty scary. The difference between the two is obvious in the way in which they harm society and people as a whole. Murdering a baby - huge societal impact, both to the immediate family, and the shock of the population as a whole, murder, particularly that of an infant or minor, is something that will shake society in a big way, and lead to harm of said society. MP3 'theft' is not a 'victimless crime', but surely should allow for more leniance in this matter. Personally, I feel that the RIAA is being extremely hypocritical, especially when they say they protect the bands on various labels; 'without this money, they can no longer make albums'. I beg to differ, these bands generally receive less than 10% from CD sales AT THE MOST, while the rest goes to the record industry. Bands make their money from touring. If they would be honest about WHY they are doing this, rather than giving bullshit black-mail answers on the subject, then maybe people would be more open to the idea.

 

[Profanity]

I believe good music should be bought at all times, why do you need to download whole songs? Don't use the excuse to see if I like the song, you can see if you like a song by listening to 30 seconds of one and Lycos or Yahoo let you do that.

 

[Caelestia]

Yeah, 30 sec sound clips don't give much away, unless you're talking about predictable formulaic songs that all sound the same And I agree with Dark Jester. If it weren't for p2p I wouldn't have bought most of the CDs I did this year.

 

[Dark_Jester]

Profanity, did you miss what I said, if I find good music, I buy it, in the past month I've bought six CD's, all from music I've downloaded. And yes, I do download whole songs to decide whether I like it, and I will download three. If I like two of them, I'll buy the album, if I'm not keen, I don't buy the album, and as I don't like the songs, delete them. So, why is this any worse than a 30 second low bitrate sample that doesn't give an accurate portrayal of the song? Do you really think that with 30 seconds of an Opeth song for example, you could have even the SLIGHTEST idea what the song, or the album, would be like?