Wow...I always felt the RIAA and their tactics of "sue them, and they'll buy more records" was silly, but this is just rediculous. From the article:

Marie Lindor, a home health aide who has never bought, used, or even turned on a computer in her life, but was nevertheless sued by the RIAA in Brooklyn federal court for using an "online distribution system" to "download, distribute, and/or make available for distribution" plaintiff's music files, has requested a pre-motion conference in anticipation of making a summary judgment motion dismissing the complaint and awarding her attorneys fees under the Copyright Act.


Yeah. Sueing someone for file swapping who doesn't even own a computer. That's rich. What's next? Sueing the residents of an old folks home for humming melodies without paying royalties?

userfriendly.org

HA HA HA yes the RIAA is a pain and the comic is funny... I hope i don't get in trouble with them....

The RIAA is now shutting down websites for Illegaly posting song lyrics. Who says "Why buy a cd, if I can read it instead?". For Christal's sake, its like they're just trying to anger the public. A twelve year old girl got in legal trouble for downloading commercial jingles. They really are scum.

I had never heard of any of this before... but from the sounds of it I might be a target for them. I stopped listening to music sometime in the '90s because all of it started sounding the same.... and not in a good way.

Those guys are nuts. And the funniest part is, it's having no major affect on pirating of songs and stuff, because there's just too many people doing it

I wonder if you could make a profit just by suing people for piracy.....

A certain german lawyer did.

Thats just sad. I hate when people make a living of the unjust loss of others.

Doesn't ring a bell here. What is his story?

Just learn the law and you'll be fine, like everything else there are not only loppholes in the laws but easy ways to stay under their radar.

The biggest advice I could ever give anyone who ever pirated or downloaded anything with copy-right protection is never think just because you've never been caught doing it before doesn't mean you won't be caught eventually.

That's one special guy. He's a lawyer and he's probably one of the most hated individuals in this country.

Early in his carrier, he hunted pirates. He forced some guy to pose as a girl on a couch for a photo which he then used in some teen mag for an ad where he wrote he was a girl that was interested in mail-swapping games. All those who answered that ad were in for a surprise.

Later, he found another field to excell in and began to work in the trademark business. He'd send warnings to people for using trademark names which would cost those people a lot of money, often whole batches of them. The most (in)famous such case involves a trademark called 'Explorer', and he sent warnings to people who had programs on their homepages with names like "FTP Explorer", but not to the makers of such programs. Eventually someone didn't want to pay and asked the PO for removal of that trademark and won, and that whole business was over, but I'm sure he's found something new by now.

To say he's unpopular is an understatement. His office door sign has been removed several times, he's undoubtedly received numerous anonymous threads and I think even his car was burnt down once.

Ha, his car.... Yes well sounds like I'd hate him if I ran into him... but whats his name?

Günther Freiherr von Gravenreuth (the title he got from his wife). Though that's taking us a bit off-topic

Unfortunately... companies aren't the only ones to blame in our messed up system of lawsuits. Check this one out....

The flying shrimp

If this family gets awarded anything at all... I will be very very upset.

IMO... They should be charged with fraud and be forced to pay for all of the court costs, attorney costs for both sides, loss wages for those jury member present, everything! Then they need to issue a public apology to the restaurant!

Well, I'd like to add something. I never met him personally but I read a few posts in an internet forum he uses. He is not someone that you want to like at all.

That's true, if they could somehow find every person who downloaded a song or movie or something, a crap load of people would be in jail. Like at my highschool, I've heard people talking about downloading songs.

Know someone who has an iPod with 500 songs? How many you think were bought off iTunes? Hmm? Especially the kids at my school, who can barely afford the iPod itself and probably only have a dozen CDs, how are they going to get there music?

P2P and Torrent sites awayyyyyy!!!

I'm in alot of trouble everyone. A friend of mine was telling me about a band he liked, and he told me some of the lyrics were very strange. I asked why, and he started to tell me about a song. Before you could say "Tricicles in skirts", shots were fired. I'm in an FBI hospital right now, because appearently being shot twice and shocked with an air tazer is a quite terrible thing. When I asked where my friend was, they tranquilized me and threw me in a pit of rabid bears until I had learned my lesson. I'm being held for Grand Theft Audio, the theft of hard working billionaires money, Grand Theft Electro, uncertified bear fighting and for no particular reason, assaulting a police officer and evading arrest.

There have now been numerous websites shut down for the distribution of lyrics. Why? Good question. Because the RIAA and most major record labels hate humanity. Its like the whole Outsiders effect with the Socs, the multi-billionaires can no longer get richer or get in trouble, so they're just starting trouble with random people for blurred causes.

People having websites shut down for posting lyrics, even though MOST BANDS HAVE FREE LYRICS PAGES ON THEIR WEBSITES, is simply insane, and all people responsible for this insanity should be fed to alligators with dull teeth.

nah i think they should be fed to rabbits. As in bunny rabbits. specially trained to eat human flesh, starting from the toes and working upwards. Imagine how long and painful a death that would be

Oh no! poor you.....that´s just terrible....how come you get acess to a comp? Awwwwww

I didn't, I had to kill a guard, take his Black Berry (portable comp) and hide in a ventilation shaft.

I can't to see what the RIAA has in store for the future. You got caught humming the tune to Jet Generation by Guitar wolf? Three life sentences. Told a friend not to by Metallica's new album? 100 000 years of community service. Don't even get me started on the crime of video taping your daughters dance recitle without the dance studio's permission.

You mean this one?

Most excellent. Now to train an entire army. The world shall cower in fear!! MUAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Actually I think the very popular song "Happy Birthday" is technically still copyrighted until 2030. Also read the rights are owned by Time-Warner. So really they should be getting commissions for its use whenever its played in a public setting. Might be RIAAs next big target... hehe should be worth billions!

A lot of kids at my school dont even know downloading those songs is illegal. Kinda sad. Sad part is most of them I tell that it is illegal and that you will eventually be caught if you keep on pirating stop immediately.