RIAA and MPAA are the scourage of the entertainment industry. They'd rather make $4000 than improve relations and their reputation.

Am I the only one that thinks this is insane? Oh we lost, but you got kids right, so well just go after them. When is it going to be enough? When are the people going to demand that the RIAA stop their bullying?

Suing kids for downloading music? This is pathetic. If the mother got away with it, couldn't they argue an 11 year old honestly didn't know any better?

If you makes you feel any better, I have no doubt (as a law clerk to a federal judge) that the RIAA spent a couple hundred-thousand dollars to bring this case. From Feb '05 till today...that's a lot of billable hours for it's attorneys.

I hope it was worth it.

With most of congress and Whitehouse aids in their pocket, this is only the beginning.

taking money from kids? what a bunch of savages

Yeah, that is always a winning position to take. I hate RIAA and MPAA for how they do business, but if you are going to argue with them, then you need a much better argument than, I was ignorant. The mother not knowing how to use a computer is a justifiable defense, because then the worst they could do is find her stupid for not knowing what was going on with the computer her kids were using, because she was not the one using the computer. The worst thing she could be found guilty of would be aiding and abetting, but that pretty much requires intent, which would be extremely difficult to prove, and would amount to needing a credible witness that can say they heard her tell her kids something that goes along the lines of, "I cannot afford to buy you music, so steal it from others, here is a computer and an internet connection to do it with, ok kids?"

I sure am glad that I am a lamer who appreciates the 80's and early 90's music to the new stuff, so I am at least not supporting these companies anymore.

Songs should be free if I want them to be free. What's next? Will they make shoplifting illegal even if you really want the item?

wow she should have settled for the original $4,000. $7,000 + $24000 = ouch or $31 per song!

I think this has more to do with trying to make kids scared than to make money,etc. Fear, if used correctly can be very effective (read: Sun Tzu if you haven't already). Any ways, like all teens they can't kill piracy. It's part of the mainstream now. I would say about 20% of most people's songs in their MP3s are pirated. lol

Thats just insane how can you even go after the kids after 7 years not to mention when the committed this act nether was legal adult. How did the RIAA get away with this? I guess if someones kid does something to me I take parents to court and lose all I gotta do is wait for the kid to turn 18 and sue the kid? This is insane I really think a judge would have laughed this out of court since both where minors and the parents suit fell thought. Give me a break does the RIAA not get that at first maybe people believed in what they where doing was right but at this rate I think people should just stop supporting the music industry period tell they drop the RIAA. Listen to the radio I sure would not buy anymore CD's or songs from record labels that are affiliated with the RIAA maybe if they started losing a massive amount of sales they would finally understand what there doing is just as bad as the people who download music. Intimidating people and going after children is just wrong and thats what there doing.

I like the search for "Ninja" in Kazaa as the picture.

There needs to be some hard laws about the timeline for these types of lawsuits. Essentially two [legal] adults are being treated as adults for things they did when they were kids. This case should have been settled six years ago. What they did was wrong, but it seems the settlement is decided as though they recently were sharing files (as adults).

If file sharing is meant to be taken as seriously as shop lifting, then the punishment needs to be consistent with shop lifting. I understand the kids were distributing the files, but you can do the same with stolen CDs (burn them, for example). I highly doubt children would be ordered to pay $7000 for stealing CDs at age 11 and 15. There would be some type of payment for damages, return the stolen goods, and juvenile hall. That should have been the settlement six years ago.

It is, and always has been..........

Honestly this is ridiculous. They have just proven that they are the greediest bastards on the face of the earth, and somehow they sound proud of it.

I hate the music industry. After they stared suing I stopped purchasing legally. Now I pirate ALL music using various methods. I'll never purcahse music again - ever.

[citation]Songs should be free if I want them to be free. What's next? Will they make shoplifting illegal even if you really want the item?[/citation]

LOL enjoy the downward thumbs! Remember, this is Tom's Hardware (and software/media as long as it's free to me). Acting as if Copyright is some sort of law will get you the boot.

good and when the ISP's are forced to hand over their records of who's downloading what, have fun...


I don't like how Coca Cola prices bottled water more expensive then a bottle of coca cola in a lot of developing country's but i still drink the stuff.


I really do hope they start going after you pirate bastards. Its a form of theft thus making all pirates criminals

If you get thumbs down its because people find your comments aren't contributing to the argument (and you're just insulting people).

Making a statement while adding no substance to an argument will get you thumbs down. The issue with copyright infringement is a political one and includes several differing views, much like issues about pre-marital sex, abortion, gay marriage, etc. Ignoring those who disagree with you be very productive.

Again, attacking those who disagree with you won't help resolve the issue. Its like saying "I hope all those mothers that have abortions are tried as murderers because that's what an abortion is, murder".

Clearly, there's a disagreement between the effects of 'copying' media and sharing it. The very statement that it is 'stealing' is hard to apply when the act of 'copying' doesn't produce the same effects.

Clearly those kids are responsible for the fall of Hanson's career... if only they'd paid for the CD instead =(

Dirty, crooked scum-bags. I'll have to teach my 5-year-old daughter to be afraid of perverts, deviants, drug-addicts and the RIAA.

You guys should do what i have been doing and that is to:

A.Do not buy any music from any large record label
B.do not buy any music from any artist who has signed with the RIAA

that is what i have done for years now and before the internet i was still not buying any large label stuff.Do you realize how much good music is out there by bands who are not RIAA or from small lables who are not RIAA.

yes and the MPAAA is a crock of krap so I don't even buy many movies

Pathetic. I hope the RIAA and MPAA die in a fire. Useless organizations hell-bent on destruction

"The RIAA eventually dropped the charges against the mother after she proved that she was essentially computer illiterate."

Best line in the article.

I realize many of you are not old enough to remember a time before CD and DVD players but believe it or not there was. Before CD's there were cassette tape players and before them were 8-tack and reel to reel recorders. Long before the internet there was digital radio and they played whole albums that could and were recorded. We have been able to record from the radio as well. How is what is being done with file sharing any different than what we have been able to do for years? The only difference is how the songs are duplicated and the format they are in and what they are being stored on. There is nothing new here and there is no crime being committed as long as the parties involved are not reproducing the music for profit.

The Motion picutre association cried the same tune when VCR's came out, they complained that they would be ruined with people copying the movies, it didn't turn out that way just ask Blockbuster. Now both of these industry's find themselves behind the times, Blockbuster is about to go under and the RIAA hasn't a clue how to go about their business in a digital age. No bailout for them adapt or die.

If the kids listen to Hanson and Michael Jackson I think they should have been able to use a insanity defense.

Fuck you RIAA.

Spending a week sitting around the radio waiting for all the songs of an album to come on is not the same as getting any song you want in 4 seconds. You can't just take things at face value without considering the context and effects; how long would it take to make a hundred albums from the radio versus a thousand albums by downloading? There are orders of magnitude more volume going on now than back then with copying - I bet there are more illegal songs downloaded in a day today than tape recorders bought in a year back then. Business are allowed to keep profit in mind, it doesn't make them greedy - bread used to cost 14 cents 50 years ago but times change regardless if its still made the same way (i.e. is still "copying"). That doesn't make the people of the bread industry savages.

With that said, I am not siding with the RIAA. I actually know very little about the specifics of what they have done to piss everyone off so much. But targeting a 15 and 11 year old for what, I'm sure, is just publicity is pretty sick. Using [reasonable]scare tactics are fine by me if they're effective, but how about targeting someone who is actually able to realize the scope of what they're doing.

down with the RIAA

they produce CRAP

Fuck the RIAA.

Sure, the kids are adults now, but how do you hold an 11 year old (at the time) responsible for thousands of dollars in restitution? Just absolutely disgusting.