RIAA spanks another granny:
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A Fayetteville grandmother is facing off with the recording industry. The Recording Industry Association of America said she illegally downloaded and shared copyrighted songs.
About a month ago, Barbara Johnson tried to log onto AOL and found she was cut off. She called the company.
“They told me they did it because of the downloading and sharing the files with everyone else,” Johnson said.
Then she received a letter from AOL. It said the Recording Industry Association of America plans to subpoena her account.
Johnson said it was her grandson Deron who downloaded music using a popular file sharing program. When she found out it was illegal, she spoke to him about it.
“My grandma told me to stop so I stopped,” Deron said. “I stopped downloading but I didn’t delete my programs.”
An RIAA phone call last week informed Johnson that Deron had downloaded 520 songs.
“Those 520 songs will cost you $750 and I said, ‘What?’” Johnson said.
That’s $750 for each song but the association says it will settle for $3,500.
“I said, ‘You know what? You won’t get it because I don’t have it,’” Johnson said. [News 14 Carolina]
Another grandmother brought to her knees. Another t-shirt sold.
They can find Granny Johnson, who doesn’t have $3,500, in order to sue her, but they can’t find David Bowie, Dolly Parton or Public Enemy to pay them royalties.