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.
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.