Georgetown Independent

Issue date: 3/28/07 Section: Commentary

The Recording Industry Association of America is one of the most despicable organizations on the face of the planet. It brings frivolous lawsuits against people who are not guilty of any crime, crippling them with fees they have no chance of paying. It sues grandmothers who have never downloaded any music, students struggling to pay off their loans, and even the deceased. Its constituent members have used rhetoric and propaganda to make the public think that "piracy" is not the product of raping and pillaging seamen but rather the result of "digital theft." In short, the RIAA is a group of extortionist thugs who have sent a chill through every college campus and beyond by preventing music fans from sharing the art that they love.

First, a brief history. In 1999, the RIAA, an industry association which represents major and minor labels, sued Sean Fanning's Napster file-sharing service for copyright infringement. Napster folded in 2002 under the weight of the RIAA's pressure, but other services emerged to fill the void, notably software based on the Gnutella network such as Kazaa and Morpheus. The RIAA, unsurprisingly, didn't like these services either and proceeded to file similar lawsuits against them. Because of the decentralized nature of these services, however, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that their peer-to-peer nature released them from any liability for the content that was shared over the network. Frustrated, the RIAA turned to suing individual users and on September 8, 2003 it filed against 261 music fans for copyright infringement. Since then, the RIAA has been filing approximately 700 new suits each month.

These lawsuits come at a massive cost for their defendants, causing stress and hardship. Tammy Lafky was 41 years old when she was sued for her teenage daughter's downloading. She owes the RIAA $500,000 in penalties. Considering her annual income is $21,000, it's likely that she won't be paying those bills off anytime soon. Sarah Ward was a retired schoolteacher when she was notified of the lawsuit against her in 2003. However, her old computer couldn't even run the Kazaa program she was accused of using. Gertude Walton was sued a few years ago for illegal file sharing. Once her daughter replied to the RIAA's letter with Walton's death certificate, however, the case was dropped. The RIAA was not so forgiving with the members of Larry Scantlebury's family, whom the RIAA began to depose following his death for the lawsuit against his estate.

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