In a court case where the RIAA tried suing the mother of a 13 year old when her daughter shared music over a file-sharing network, the court forced the RIAA to dismiss the case. In order for the RIAA to sue the child, a Guardian Ad Litem (guardian appointed by a court to represent a minor) must be appointed to protect the interests of the child. While the mother had no experience or knowledge with computers, the RIAA claimed that she was indirectly liable for allowing her daughter to use her computer to illegally share music online.
While the
case was dismissed, the mother had to pay legal fees as the Judge refused to
award her attorneys fees. The reason is that the plaintiffs' lawyers had
taken the appropriate steps in trying to prosecute the mother and that the
mother used tactics to obstruct the Plaintiff to efficiently prosecute
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The case was dismissed with prejudice, which prevents the case from being advanced against the defendant. Finally, the RIAA tried asking the Judge to amend the judgement in order to allow them to sue the child through a Guardian Ad Litem. However the court denied this RIAA's request. Thanks to both adderal and RTV71 for using our news submit to let us know about the following
news:
|
The RIAA sued the defendant Candy Chan, who had no experience or knowledge of computers. It was possible that her 13 year old daughter may have had a file sharing account. The RIAA continued to argue that Ms. Chan was indirectly liable for providing a computer to her teenage daughter. After taking Ms. Chan's deposition, the RIAA moved to add the 13 year old child as a defendant. Ms. Chan's attorney, John Hermann of Berkley, Michigan, objected, arguing that the daughter was a minor and that the Court would have to appoint a guardian ad litem to protect the interests of the child, before for the child before they could proceed. The full article including documents can be read here. |
Well, at least it is nice to see the RIAA finally lose a case for trying to sue an adult or child when a minor ends up sharing music online. However, this does not stop them from issuing further lawsuits against children with guardians to present the minors. In my opinion, the RIAA should not be allowed to target young minors with lawsuits, especially since most cannot afford to purchase music as it is, let alone have a credit / debit card to use legal services.
A more reasonable approach would be first send a warning to their parents about what is going on, since in many cases the parents don't understand what's going on. For example, if one forgets to pay a bill for a product, the company would not suddenly go filing a lawsuit against the customer, but instead issue a warning to let the customer know what they have done wrong.
Source: Digital Music News
ROFL 
"Finally, the RIAA tried asking the Judge to amend the judgement in order to allow them to sue the child through a Guardian Ad Litem."
You've got to be kidding.
BOYCOTT ALL RIAA MUSIC LABELS!!! (yes i'm yelling 
)[edited by drpino on 23.09.2005 19:38]
3 cheers for the judge n Michigan who introduced some small amount of logic and common sense into these outrageous lawsuits and proceedings being pushed by the RIAA.
Maybe the RIAA should be arrested for child abuse.
When I was 13 years old back in 19-oatcakes, I would have Now That's What I Call Music 1 and 3. A friend would have Now 2 and Now 4. We swapped tapes to complete our collections. We taped the Top 40 show on the radio so we could listen to the latest tunes. No 13-year-old back then had the disposable income to afford all the music they wanted - however the tapes are nothing like the original purchased item for quality and presentation. mp3s are better quality but still don't compare to the original quality of the CD they are sourced from. What this exchanging of material at a young age does is generate a taste and a market for later on in life when young people have disposable income from employment. You never hear the RIAA or the MPAA or whatever anti-p2p body mention this promotional side-effect and increased revenue as a result of using p2p file sharing. It's a fallacy to say that record companies only lose money from "illegal" p2p downloading. I remember the old slogans "Home Taping is Killing Music" sitting below a skull and cross-bones pirate image. The artists back then seemed to be doing okay, as they are now. Seems the RIAA should be spending their resources on constructive projects rather than destroy their future income.
bleh it'd be more interesting to get a ruling the goes one way or the other on filesharing, to see if the lawyers can drum up a loophole that makes p2p not so evil.
Well you could use P2P to share text files and photo albums of your pets during that summer vacation ;-)))
I agree with poster above BOYCOTT all those music artists, greedy f*** who make MILLIONS and MILLIONS of profits.
Boycott ALL artists and don't order music onlien or buy their music.
early christmas shopping is coming people BOYCOTT all the music that the riaa represents don't go into no stores they represent, or buy anything that the riaa represents !!!!!!!!
it's time to hit back where the riaa and the record cartel hurts, MONEY!!!!!!
nobody buys cd's and tapes nobody from the riaa or cartel get money !!!!!!!!!as long as the record companies cartel are getting money from online and retailed stores then they will keep sicking the riaa assholes onto file sharing p2p systems weather or not you pay or don't pay , the record companies want p2p file sharing systems off the internet PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!
what ever it takes to do so !!!!!
[edited by Rhelic on 25.09.2005 17:18]
people need to find out where the pres of riaa or their speaker or who ever works for those bastards is speaking or putting in an appearance and then take boxes of un-wanted cd's and tapes and video's and take them to a river or a ocean or even a pond and get a loud speaker and start yelling listen up riaa this is what we think of your tactics and then dump the boxes in !!!!!
and create our own little boston tea party!!!
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