Music Pirate (12-year-old girl sued for downloading music)

NY Post ^ | September 9, 2003 -- | Lorena Mongelli

[dead]

The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers - including a 12-year-old Upper West Side girl who thought downloading songs was fun.

Brianna LaHara said she was frightened to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued yesterday by giant music companies in federal courts around the country.

[BigBobber]

So, what's the difference between this, and taking a book out from the library?

Thank you. I have raised the library issue many times on these threads and have yet to get anyone to tell me how KaZaa is different from a library.

My library loans out copyrighted CDs which can be easily copied on a home computer.

Librarians and patrons are thieves, according to some on these threads.

[Pippin]

Oh!

But I still think they are rats1

As soon as they realize the ages of some of these people (a lot are children) they should halt thier lawsuits against the children (12 and younger)

[Sabatier]

The kids listen to the beat and there isn't enough difference in quality between a download and an overpriced $17 CD when you're talking rap and hiphop. A download is "good enough".

Plus the kids complain there's only two or three good tracks on a CD that costs 17 to 20 bucks. There I think they have a point. Instead of fighting the new technology the music industry should get with it and let people buy the one or two songs they really like.

Or another possibility - start making a better product.

[sox_the_cat]

"I'm surprised how many people in FR are taking the view that the theft of proprietary material is ok"

So any proprietary material that is saved on a hard drive is a crime? Any article that you may have saved on your hard drive or any photo is a crime?

Wouldn't that make most internet users criminals? If I've got a 1993 photo of Bill Clinton saved from the Boston Globe or a 2001 Boston Herald Column by Howie Carr on my hard drive does the Boston Globe or Boston Herald have a case against me?

[Steve_Seattle]

By far the biggest entertainment ripoff is sports events. Unless you sit in the centerfield bleachers, you will pay $20-$40 for a decent seat, plus another $8-$15 for food, and maybe $5-15 for parking. (And NFL and NBA and NHL tickets are even higher.) And you aren't guaranteed a favorable outcome - at least in a movie, the good guys always win or you get to see somebody have sex.

[HAL9000]

Upon further reflection, I'll answer my own question: the media is emphasizing this girl to make the music industry look bad. I'm surprised how many people in FR are taking the view that the theft of proprietary material is ok.

The point you are missing is that the penalties for this crime are out of all reasonable proportion. Fining a 12-year-old girl $150,000 for each song is ridiculous.

If I was on the jury, I'd award RIAA fifty cents per song - and no court costs or attorney fees.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The fact that she looks like she’s in her mid-forties probably threw them off.

Be nice, now. She's probably a sweet kid.

[Ayn Rand wannabe]

Did I miss something here? Didn't they pay a service charge to Kazaa for the music? If that is true, why is she being sued?

[BenLurkin]

8^}

8^0

8^)

LOL!

[VU4G10]

"theft is illegal"

So is illegal immigration.

[Steve_Seattle]

Many things can be copied from the Internet without causing the source to lose revenue it would normally expect to have. In your example, the Boston Globe was not losing expected revenue by your copying the photo - the photo was not (to my knowledge) being marketed as a separate item. Now, if you copied that photo and then tried to re-sell it or copies of it for your own gain, the Globe would probably have a copyright infringement case. In the library examples, there remains only one copy of the book or CD, so if you want to own the book or CD, you still have to buy it. It is not analagous to downloading music from the Internet.

[HELLRAISER II]

The premise of "thou shalt not steal", I can agee with. However I think this fall's in the "grey area" category. I to thought that it was legal or I wouldn't have let my kids do it (actually I didn't even know they did it till I read about it and asked them). But once I learned that there could be legal reprecussions I instructed them not to do it. But hell I still don't know that it's illegal. Yeah, yeah I know the fat cat's in music industry are calling it illegal, but we shall see.

[Roughneck]

So is illegal immigration

I agree, but what does that have to do with it? Is the kid an illegal as well?

I think all illegals should be booted out - no matter what their age.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Did I miss something here? Didn't they pay a service charge to Kazaa for the music? If that is true, why is she being sued?"

I don't know what Kazaa is - is Kazaa licensed by the music industry to sell dowloading rights to private individuals?

[reagan_fanatic]

"You see, downloading music is just a gateway crime. By the time this girl is 18, she'll be robbing liquor stores, and in her 20's she'll be doing banks!"

"Or heaven forbid, she might even start smoking."

...or driving an SUV.

[XRdsRev]

You hit the nail on the head. There is a burgeoning underground music scene that caters around putting unknown, unsigned artists on the web and allowing their music to be downloaded for free or for a couple cents per song. Some of the music is really good stuff, far superior to the sterilized drek that makes it onto many major label records nowadays.

I don't condone theft of proprietary material but I find it ironic that the same recording companies that have been swindling struggling artists and songwriters for decades, are now complaining that 12 year olds are stealing their songs.

[Steve_Seattle]

I'm not going to defend the specific amounts asked for in the suit, but the RIAA probably knows they're not going to get anywhere near those huge amounts. They're probably trying to make a statement to scare people off.

[HELLRAISER II]

Using your theory still doesn't work. If I read it here or somewhere else, than I didn't pay them for the article in any way.

[Orangedog]

With tactics like suing 12 year olds, I will dance a jig of glee when the entire record industry collapses. The way it is now, the recruiters take some teenage bimbo that can't carry a note, dress her up like a trollop and spent a good amount of time cleaning up whatever they get her to sing. You can clean up ANYTHING in the studio, but put them on stage and it's another story.

[lawdude]

""It's not like we were doing anything illegal," said Torres."

Fact is, she WAS doing something illegal.

That said, they are NOT helping their cause with this heavy-handedness!