Funny Musings: Riaa Is Now Going After Deceased

[Kaotic]

taken from CD Freaks news bulletin:

First the RIAA sue non-PC & Mac users and now the Deceased

Posted by Seán Byrne on 05 February 2005 - 00:33 - Source: the Charleston Gazette wgazette

Previously, we heard of incidents where the RIAA filed lawsuits against those who never used file swapping software, have a Macintosh or those who do not even have a computer. Well this time, not only does the person the RIAA targeted not have a computer, but the person is also dead!

Gertrude Walton who died December 2004 was sued making 700 tracks of pop, rock and rap music available under the nickname "smittenedkitten". According to her daughter Robin Chianumba, she hated computers and would not have even known how to turn one on let alone use one. She also faxed a copy of her grand mother’s death certificate to the record company officials in response to the legal filing.

As the RIAA target individuals by IP addresses, it is often not the bill payer that is at fault. For example there were several cases where it was children involved in sharing out music, but the parents who may even not have any computer skills are the ones that get the penalty. However in this case, it is not clear how an IP address matched up with an individual who never had a computer in their house. brantdk used our news submit to let us know about the following news:

Gertrude Walton of Fayette County hated computers, her daughter said.

That did not stop the recording industry from accusing the now deceased 83-year-old Mount Hope woman of illegally trading music over the Internet.

More than a month after Walton was buried in Beckley, a group of record companies named her as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit. They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name “smittenedkitten.”

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America acknowledged that Walton was probably not the smittenedkitten it is searching for.

“Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago,” said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. “We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case.”

Walton’s daughter, Robin Chianumba, lived with her mother for the last 17 years of her life and said her mother objected to having a computer in the house. Chianumba said she didn’t know anything about the record company’s claims. And she said she does not know anything about the screen name.

“My mother was computer illiterate. She hated a computer,” Chianumba said. “My mother wouldn’t know how to turn on a computer.”

With cases like this, there is a good chance that many PC users that get targeted for lawsuits that may have never shared out music on the Internet. As long as the user has a PC and an Internet connection in a case like this, the RIAA could just stick with their ‘Guilty until proven innocent’ approach. One error in the IP address could easily do this or a bad clock at either the RIAA or ISP end could put the blame on a wrong user where IP’s are dynamically assigned to users.

CREDITS: http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11323

hmmm, I wonder what they will be going after next? lol..

[skmetal07]

i know they sued a 12 year old girl once

[jadeclaw]

Actually, we need more cases like this, so that the judges will learn, that the IP-address of an user proves nothing and is no longer valid evidence.

Plus, the network address shown in these P2P-programs during download is not necessarily the one you're loading from.

Problem: RIAA-lawyers are waaay too dumb or too greedy to accept this...

[ROMBUSTERS]

Actually, we need more cases like this, so that the judges will learn, that the IP-address of an user proves nothing and is no longer valid evidence.

Plus, the network address shown in these P2P-programs during download is not necessarily the one you're loading from.

Problem: RIAA-lawyers are waaay too dumb or too greedy to accept this...

←

no the problem is they'd rather oversee this little technicallity and get as much money back as possible.

the funny thing? how much do the artists get of this money?

[aeriyn]

I hope the RIAA sues more dead people and more 12 year old girls. The more idiotic and pathetic their behavior gets, the angrier the FTC and the federal government will become at them.

[atrain]

not so mad they stop going to the levees held by record industry lobyists though. not so mad they stop a private organisation using federal enforcement type powers in proscecution.