FROM WIRED NEWS: RIAA Takes Shotgun to Traders

Link: Wired News: RIAA Takes Shotgun to Traders.

by Bruce Gain. 02:00 AM Oct. 04, 2005 PT

In May, a judge in Michigan dismissed a file-sharing case against Candy Chan, a mother who testified in court that the user name identified in the suit belonged to one of her children.

In the court report (.pdf), Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff wrote: "Chan opposed the motion and asserted that the plaintiffs used a 'shotgun' approach to pursue this action, threatening to sue all of Chan's children and engaging in abusive behavior to attempt to utilize the court as a collection agency."

The case was dismissed but last week the record companies filed suit against Chan's child. 1

Now others say they are in the same boat as Chan.

"I don't even know how to download music," said Tanya Andersen, a disabled single mother from Oregon who lives on Social Security benefits. "The user names (they cite) I have never heard of."

Andersen is one of three single parents claiming to have been erroneously identified as an illegal music trader by a law firm representing RIAA interests, which is seeking more than $1 million in damages -- $750 for each of the 1,400 songs Andersen allegedly shared.

The RIAA began its litigation campaign in September 2003, resulting in more than 14,000 lawsuits. So far, more than 3,300 parties have settled, which the RIAA says proves the overwhelming majority of those summoned are guilty of stealing copyright files.

But attorneys representing many of the accused say that's not true. Estimates of how many people are being wrongly targeted for illegal file sharing vary, from hundreds to many more.

Ray Beckerman, a New York-based attorney with Beldock Levine & Hoffman, put the number in the thousands.

"My impression is that the majority of those sued are innocent," Beckerman said.

Andersen wrote to Rep. David Wu (D-Oregon) and offered to surrender her PC to the RIAA for inspection -- to no avail.

"(The RIAA) says 'We don't care enough about you that we are even going to check,'" said Lory R. Lybeck, Andersen's attorney from Lybeck Murphy of Mercer Island, Washington. "And if ... they have made a mistake, they are not going to apologize or investigate -- they are going to sue you again."

Dawnell Leadbetter, a Washington-based single mom whom Lybeck also represents, is suing Comcast, her ISP, for disclosing her name and other personal details to the RIAA, which then sued her. She also says the RIAA has confused her IP address with the wrong person.

Accurately tracking acts of piracy and matching names to IP addresses can be an error-prone process. Many things can go wrong when determining who is actually downloading and uploading copyright files over file-sharing networks, especially when attempting to identify users' names, IP addresses and actual PCs -- let alone the PC's user at the time. [story continued...]

Comments

[M Burke]

I'm split on this... the RIAA is certainly overly agressive yet at the same time, if I allow someone to use property in the commission of a crime, I'm responsible. The increase in technology has made it possible for more technically savy kids and other users to use parent's and other's PCs to do things the end-user doesn't understand. It is imperitive that people monitor their PC. (The same argument can be made for TV etc etc etc.)

There is some similarities however to the case in Florida where someone's being prosecuted for accessing someone's unsecured wireless network in that it was the end-user's responsibility to monitor and secure their system. In the end it is the producer's responsibility to copyprotect their works (yuck) and the user's responsibility to monitor and secure their PC/Network.

If the system's owner is responsible in one case, they should be responsible in the other. Otherwise the cases would cancel each other out. My point... the justice system needs an overhaul when it comes to technological matters.