P2P group: We'll pay girl's RIAA bill

CNET News.com ^ | September 10, 2003, 1:24 PM PT | John Borland

[yonif]

A peer-to-peer group says it will cover costs for a 12-year-old New York girl who agreed to pay record labels $2,000 to settle a file-swapping lawsuit. P2P United, a peer-to-peer industry trade group that includes Grokster, StreamCast Networks, Limewire and other file-trading software companies, said Wednesday it had offered to reimburse Brianna Lahara and her mother's payment to the Recording Industry Association of America. Lahara's mother agreed Tuesday to settle copyright infringement charges on behalf of her daughter.

"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.

Eisgrau said he had not yet been in direct contact with Lahara or her mother.

In the few days since Lahara's unexpected rise into the public eye, the schoolgirl's case has become a cause celebre for RIAA critics, who say the recording industry's wave of lawsuits against file-traders is misguided.

According to a New York Post profile, Lahara is a 12-year-old honors student who lives in public housing. Her name turned up in one of the 261 lawsuits filed by the record industry group on Monday.

Lahara's $2,000 settlement was the first announced deal of what is expected to be many out-of-court agreements. RIAA President Cary Sherman said Monday that a handful of settlement agreements, averaging around $3,000 apiece, were already being negotiated.

In a statement released jointly by the RIAA and Lahara on Tuesday, Lahara said she was "very sorry" for what she had done. According to the RIAA, the girl's computer had illegally been sharing more than 1,000 songs through the Kazaa software.

"We understand now that file-sharing the music was illegal," her mother, Sylvia Torres, added in the statement. "You can be sure Brianna won't be doing it anymore."

The RIAA said the deal with Lahara satisfied its goal of sending a message to file swappers.

"As this case illustrates, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers," Mitch Bainwol, the group's new chief executive, said in the statement.

Previous targets of RIAA lawsuits have sometimes found financial help from the file-swapping community.

Daniel Peng, a Princeton University junior who agreed to settle file-trading charges with the RIAA for $15,000 earlier this year, has raised nearly $10,000 toward covering his costs from public donations made through PayPal and other online payment services, according to his Web site.

Eisgrau said P2P United had no plans to pay other file-swappers' legal fees. The recently founded group plans to lobby in Washington, D.C., for policies such as compulsory music licensing on peer-to-peer networks, which would force the music companies to allow songs to be traded on file-trading networks in return for some payment to copyright holders.

[Hodar]

Complete list of 'names' can be found here.

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/jump/0,24196,3506996,00.html

[John Beresford Tipton]

"a system that permits multinational corporations with phenomenal financial and political resources to strong-arm 12-year-olds"

"political resources" is a polite way of saying
"Congress Critters on the Take".

She's probably lucky that Hatch didn't "blow up" her computer

[dead]

I think the RIAA needs to spend some of their booty on a sorely-needed public relations firm.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Has any list of the 261 defendants been published yet? I'd like to see if any friends or family have been sued.

[Jack Wilson]

Looter, caught with television:

I already have a tv, this is a backup

It costs $20 to make a tv and they charge $500 for them

There's nothing good on tv, they should give them away

If I like what I see on this tv, I may buy my own

The door on this store was wide open, no one said you couldn't take one

If they would give away tv's, sales would go up

If you arrest me, I will get mad and I will never buy a tv from this store

I didn't know there was a specific law against stealing tv's

How wrong could it be to take tv's when I see 50 other guys taking tv's?

So you've never taken anything that didn't belong to you, what are you some kind of saint?

By taking this tv, I am liberating tv stars who are being exploited by the networks who are in cahoots with the tv manufacturers

[=Intervention=]

The "song is a physical object" comparison has already been debunked. Try again.

[Hodar]

I am unaware of and list of people's proper names, I think that would be a privacy issue. However, if you used Kazaa and have your 'handle' listed in the link; life is gonna be pretty lousy for awhile.

[bitcon]

Well it doesn't matter about your handle. I see mine is on there three (3) times. But I know there's multiple people with the handle kazaaliteuser@kazaa.

[Hodar]

I see your point, however I cannot agree with you. For example, you may record from the AM/FM radio to your heart's content; and as long as you do not re-sell the recordings there does not exist a legal problem. Why?

It is common knowledge that the music 'quality' on AM/FM is inferior to the origonal source, thus the these recordings are not pursued. Now, MP3 recordings are NOT as good as the original source either. They are better than FM radio, but not as good as the CD. So, here is my quandry. Why may I record the music from the radio (or satelite TV) and not be facing charges, however if I share MP3 files I have made from MY purchased CD collection, I have committed a crime?

Years ago, the motion picture assocation was concerned that the home video recorder (Beta or VHS) would spell the doom of the movie industry. Remember in the days just prior to Blockbuster, the cost of a VHS movie was $60-90 each. The fear was that people would record the movies from TV, or duplicate the tapes. The solution .... movie prices plumeted, it was no longer 'worth the energy' to duplicate or record from TV. If you wanted the movie, you simply bought it. Now, movies that lost money at the theaters, suddenly found another revenue source in the post-showing arena. Smash hits made multiples of their boxoffice in tape sales.

The RIAA has decided not to learn from history, and the result will mean that as the RIAA ceases to exist (as we know it today) it will alienate it's customers; creating ill-will which will further decimate it's already lack-luster sales.

[beelzepug]

"I think the RIAA needs to spend some of their booty on a sorely-needed public relations firm."

I'd like to know what has happened to my CD price-fixing settlement. Anybody know what's going on with this?

[bitcon]

From what I heard they had to pay lawyers and the rest was donated to charity. It was posted yesterday in one of the threads about this 12 year old. Whatever happened, the long and the short is your not going to see a penny.

[Dark Knight]

We pay a fee on media and equipment capable of violating copyright. CD writers and CDs are taxed and money given to the RIAA specifically because of file sharing. The RIAA has found another way to rip us off, and they are using the courts to do it.

DK

[Hodar]

CD writers and CDs are taxed and money given to the RIAA specifically because of file sharing.

Sorry, sanity check yourself, here. A CD burner sells for as little as $49, and blanks are selling for less than 15 cents each. So, figuring the cost of materials, adverising, distribution, fabrication and retail mark-up ... I fail to see where the RIAA is getting a cent. Furthermore, just because something is CAPABLE of something, does NOT mean that a claimant is going to receive reimbursement. Those .22 shells you buy at WalMart 'could' be used against innocents. I don't think Remington is paying fines to hospitals based upon sales of their goods.

[Astronaut]

The RIAA must feel really good about themselves. They extorted $2000 from a 12 year old girl. What a bunch of tough guys! Their stupidity cost them 100x that much in bad PR. Legal download services like iTunes will change the way music is sold, and all the kicking and screaming by @**holes like Cary Sherman and the RIAA cant do a damn thing about it. One 12 year old girl defeated, 50 million more to go!

[John Beresford Tipton]

If you filed your claim in time you will get a check for $12.60.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2233217/detail.html

[bitcon]

Well tell that to the Canadian gov't. Up to 50% of the price of a black CD is tax. A good price here is $15 CDN for 50 CD-R's or 30 cents each. And yes even if it's not for piracy, in some cases if your buying lots of CDs it's cheaper to buy them in Seattle then ship them over the boarder.

[Revolting cat!]

The thieves are the record companies which sell us $50 box sets of recordings by bluesmen and r&b artists, like, incidentally, Jackie Wilson, which cost them all of 50 cents to manufacture, and for which they pay not a cent of royalties to any one, why, after all, the bluesmen are all dead, having died paupers most of them, like Jackie Wilson himself. The nerve, to accuse our children of thievery for downloading a dozen silly sing-a-long tunes. An industry with a long tradition of cheating the artists, with a long tradition of mob involvement, and now multi-national corporations of shysters, MBAs, under assistant West Coast promo men and highflying lobbyists handing out bribes like candy on Capitol Hill!

[beelzepug]

"...you will get a check for $12.60."

Thanks. I'd begun to think this was a lot of B.S. like so many other things.

[Dark Knight]

I feel pretty sane in general. I stated the original fix that allowed video recorders to be in compliance with copyright. They extended it to CD media. The RIAA is getting a cut NO MATTER WHAT THE CD USE IS. My media is not being used for copyright violation. I buy DVDs. I back up my data on CDs. I use CDs to fix friends and relatives machines. I use my video camera to tape things. All are non copyrighted events (unless I copyright them). I still pay them. The RIAA got that deal extended to CDs. Oh, did I mention that SONY sells the tech and is one of the major holders of music copyrights.

However, if you don't understand that the RIAA is double dipping, then it is strictly not my problem. If the RIAA really wanted to do the sane thing, they would try to up the fee on media sold.

The bullet analogy is interesting but only an insane manticore would make it. But if you did not catch it the first time, I'll say it again. The RIAA gets a cut from all media writers and blank CDs sold. The RIAA made a deal, and then decided it wasn't good enough. They needed to renegotiate, not selectively criminalize the behavior.

Bullet manufacturer never made a deal to reimburse hospitals, the RIAA did make a deal. CD media manufactures did make a deal, and they do pay a significant amount.

DK

Just wondering what I did to make you attack me personally instead of my argument?