Does the Music Industry Want to Make Criminals of Us All?
The Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against illegal music downloaders is old news, right? For years now, the organization has been going after dangerous criminals that include nine year old file sharers and elderly grandparents who don’t know KaZaA from a kazoo (among others) with remarkable consistency. On a couple of occasions, the targets of their litigation have fought them and won. However, in the vast majority of cases the sued individuals have settled out of court, coughing up however many thousands of dollars the RIAA demanded. And who can blame them, when contesting the suit means taking the risk of losing big, like the Minnesota woman who was found liable by a jury back in October and ordered to pay $222,000 for downloading 24 songs. See http://www.wxpnews.com/080108-Illegal-Download Even many of us who abhore the idea of stealing intellectual property find the RIAA’s tactics distasteful and the damages they claim preposterous. But this holiday season, so
