A particular piece of news caught my attention while I was reading news through my browser.
As you have probably known, the music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers – including a 12-year-old Upper West Side 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. She’s the first of 261 defendants to settle their lawsuits with the association. Brianna LaHara agreed Tuesday to pay US$2,000, or about $2 per song she allegedly shared.
“I got really scared. My stomach is all turning,” Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment on West 84th Street where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother.
She’s not the only one who downloaded, so why pick her?
“We are taking each individual on a case-by-case basis,” said Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spokeswoman Amy Weiss.
Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, said the civil lawsuits were filed against “major offenders” who made available an average of 1,000 copyright song files. The RIAA said it was pleased with the settlement. There are 260 cases still pending.
“Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation,” said Cary Sherman, the RIAA’s president. “But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.”
Record companies blame illegal music file-trading for a 31% fall in compact disc sales since mid-2000.
Brianna and the others sued yesterday under federal copyright law could face penalties of up to $150,000 per song, but the RIAA has already settled some cases for as little as $3,000.
Count herself lucky, at the same time unlucky.
There’s one thing for sure – she’s got lots of supporters. The Brianna Project has been launched to help pay back the US$2,000 by donation from the public. The last time I checked, The Brianna Project collected US$1,603.
By the way, did you know she’s an honors student. I guess she can kiss her honors goodbye. She will forever be known as “The girl who downloaded music illegally”. It’s sad isn’t it? RIAA just destroyed her life.
This article is compiled by me. My sources are from New York Post, FoxNews, The Brianna Project and CNN.
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Tags: internet, music, p2p, piracy, technology