Posted on 05/27/2004 12:57:50 PM PDT by jjm2111
Tammy Lafky has a computer at home but said she doesn't use it. "I don't know how," the 41-year-old woman said, somewhat sheepishly.
But her 15-year-old daughter, Cassandra, does. And what Cassandra may have done, like millions of other teenagers and adults around the world, landed Lafky in legal hot water this week that could cost her thousands of dollars.
Lafky, a sugar mill worker and single mother in Bird Island, a farming community 90 miles west of St. Paul, became the first Minnesotan sued by name by the recording industry this week for allegedly downloading copyrighted music illegally.
The lawsuit has stunned Lafky, who earns $12 an hour and faces penalties that top $500,000. She says she can't even afford an offer by the record companies to settle the case for $4,000.
The ongoing music downloading war is being fought on one side by a $12 billion music industry that says it is steadily losing sales to online file sharing. On the other side, untold millions of people — many of them too young to drive — who have been downloading free music off file-sharing sites with odd names like Kazaa and Grokster and who are accusing the music industry of price gouging and strong-arm tactics.
Lafky says she doesn't download free music. Her daughter did last year when she was 14, but neither of them knew it was illegal because all of Cassandra's friends at school were doing it.
"She says she can't believe she's the only one being sued," Lafky said. "She told me, 'I can't be the only one. Everybody else does it.' "
A record company attorney from Los Angeles contacted Lafky about a week ago, telling Lafky she could owe up to $540,000, but the companies would settle for $4,000.
"I told her I don't have the money," Lafky said. "She told me to go talk to a lawyer and I told her I don't have no money to talk to a lawyer."
Lafky said she clears $21,000 a year from her job and gets no child support.
The music industry isn't moved. It has sued nearly 3,000 people nationwide since September and settled with 486 of them for an average of $3,000 apiece, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major and minor labels that produce 90 percent of the recorded music in the United States.
"Our goal in these cases and in this program (of lawsuits) that we're trying to achieve is to deliver the message that it's illegal and wrong," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, senior vice president for legal affairs for the RIAA.
Since the music industry began its lawsuit campaign, awareness of the illegality of downloading copyrighted music has increased several-fold this year, Pierre-Louis said.
"And we're trying to create a level playing field for legal online (music) services," he added.
These services sell music for under a dollar a song, and some have become well known, like Apple Computer's iPod service, which advertises heavily on TV. Others are just getting off the ground.
Pierre-Louis said the RIAA does not comment on individual cases like Lafky's, but he said the music industry typically finds its targets by logging onto the same file-sharing services that the file-sharers do. Its agents then comb the play lists for names of songs that are copyrighted and that they believe are being illegally shared.
The record companies follow the songs when they're downloaded onto computers, and they also note how many copyrighted songs are stored on that computer's hard drive memory, because those songs are often "uploaded" or shared with others through the file-sharing service.
Since January, the industry has filed 2,947 lawsuits, most against "John Does," until the record companies went to court to get names of the downloaders from their Internet service providers. Last month, the music industry filed 477 lawsuits nationwide, including two "John Doe" lawsuits against users at the University of Minnesota whose identities have not been revealed.
The industry is particularly keen on stopping people who keep their computers open on the Internet for others to share. On Lafky's computer, for instance, record companies like Universal Music Group, Sony and Warner Bros. found songs by groups they publish like Bloodhound Gang, Savage Garden and Linkin Park. Also found were songs by artists Michelle Branch, MC Hammer and country stars Shania Twain and Neal McCoy, which not only were downloaded but also available to others to upload, according to the lawsuit.
Federal copyright laws allow for penalties that range from $750 per infringement or song up to $30,000 per infringement, Pierre-Louis said.
If a defendant is found to have committed a violation "in a willful manner," he or she can be fined $150,000 per song, he said.
The record companies are willing to negotiate cases individually if someone says they cannot afford the penalties. So far, no case has gone to trial, the RIAA said.
Pierre-Louis said the RIAA isn't afraid of a consumer backlash. "We're facing a daunting challenge and we have to face it head-on," he said.
Tammy Lafky is facing her own challenge. She said she doesn't know what she'll do. "I told her," she said, referring to the record company lawyer, "if I had the money I would give it to you, but I don't have it."
yup
Mailed service without a signed return receipt is not enough (just remember not to refuse it, that counts as service). And if you dont answer your door, you cannot be served...just say you were away at the time of attempt. If neither is accomplished, you can get any Default Judgment vacated.
You're getting into another realm here - advertising / marketing that exploits weak people's insecurities. It's abusive and unfortunate, but we're not going to fix it. My strategy is to not be a part of it myself, and teach the same to my kids.
Does "ham" in your screen name refer to amateur radio op.?
There are other forms of service: posted, substitute service, service by publication. Private process service also can be accomplished through unusual means, when the defendant doesn't realize he/she is about to be served. It isn't as easy as just saying you don't want to be served or refusing mail. Depends on state law, but again, it's just not that simple... be assured lots of people try to avoid service, not answer the door, etc. There are ways of serving even unwilling litigants. No question you can make it more difficult for the party filing, but it is pretty hard to avoid service altogether if someone is really determined to serve you with papers. Whether a large corporation would go to that trouble for a relatively small case is a separate issue.
A couple of weeks ago, this bozo shows up at my door with a gift bag. He asks for someone with a name similar to my wife's. I assume he just got her name wrong, and call for her to come to the door. We she gets there, Bozo reaches into his gift bag and gives her a stack of papers, then walks away.
I read the papers and see that it is a summons from some hospital in Georgia to someone whose name is similar to my wife's. I guess the mensa had found her name in the phone book and assumed it to be her.
I tell Bozo that he has the wrong house and the wrong person. Bozo puts the summons back into his gift bag and drives away.
"If the daughter committed the crime, why is the industry going after the mother?"
The isp is probably in the mother's name.
I nixed illegal music downloading by my kids and got them Napster cards. Still some kinks to work out, like how to download to their MP3 players, but they are burning "legal" cds.
"...a favor to one of his beer-buddies."
Oh, sure, everybody has a rotten lawyer story to tell. Till the first time you need one, then you go looking for the nastiest SOB you can find. I can't believe how many so-called conservatives get all bent out of shape when it comes to this subject. As I said, this is part-time work that somebody has to do, but hell, I'm probably taking work away from some illegal immigrant. Cry me a freaking river!
"...the dregs of society are the ones you are working for..."
See my post #107 to LibKill. There are bottom-feeders in any profession. I'd be the first to agree we are in serious need of tort reform in this country, for example, but that doesn't mean all lawsuits are unjustified. Nor should people who skip out on their responsiblities be given a pass. You seem a little squishy for Free Republic.
That's pretty good coming from someone even lower on the totem pool than a dreg.
Stop the RIAA bastards!
"Its agents then comb the play lists for names of songs that are copyrighted and that they believe are being illegally shared."
In other words, the article is wrong that they went after the girl for downloading. They went after her for sharing.
Simple solution.....don't share.
If I can't find the song on a legal download service (which is half the time....have tried itunes, Wal Mart, Musicmatch), then I resort to Ares or Kazaa, which almost always has it.
Itunes is being pressured by the RIAA to raise its price to 2 bucks or more per download.
Greedy bastards.
luckily they have not buckled yet.
Yeah, but it is not immoral. And nobody knows.
Keep doing it.
Agreed.
I want to hug my Musicmatch.
Quick downloads....one of the best services I think.
And unlike Wal Mart's service, they don't try to control what you do with the music.
If they try to control how many copies I make or something, I will go to Ares or Kazaa instead.
Most of the journalists who write these articles are morons.
If you read a bit further down the article, it says they found the stuff in her shared folder being open for everyone.
Hence, she got caught not for downloading, but sharing.
Ah....you have the pay Musicmatch service.
Looks awesome, but I am a cheapo and don't want to do that, so when I listen to Music Match radio I have to suffer through the ads...lol
The cheap broadband is cheap for only a year or so.
Or so I thought....then my mom called Southwestern Bell because they had a offer for new customers to get it for 29 bucks a month instead of 40 like we were paying (hey, it still was not much more expensive than 2 phone lines).
Guess what...they actually said they would drop our monthly fee to the new customer rate and to just call and request that rate any time it went up again!
My word....what a deal!
Needless to say, the fact that existing customers can get the cheap rate is not something they advertise, but we called and got it.
I wonder if other DSL carriers are the same.
Have y'all seen the new Half-Life 2 demo? It will blow you away.
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