Friday , March 29 2024

“You can be assured I will NEVER buy a RIAA cd again”

Yes, you can rightfully argue that ignorance of the law is no excuse: as citizens we each have the responsibility to know what the rules are. But the main rules are just common sense: don’t kill anyone who isn’t trying to kill you, don’t beat people up, don’t steal, don’t threaten them in a effort to get money out of them. Hmm – that last one sounds familiar. And what about stealing? Isn’t file sharing stealing? No, actually it’s a civil violation of copyright law – at worst.

With that in mind, here’s a letter from an accused file sharer:

    I feel very strange that this whole thing is happening to me. I have only had high speed internet for about 4-5 months now. I am the type of person that doesn’t watch the news, I hardly watch television, I can’t stand all of the negativity and bias. I am a pediatric intensive care nurse and I deal with life and death situations every day and do not need to watch the stuff on tv for excitement.

    I haven’t really even been on my computer too often and haven’t even burned my own cds. I work in a small area in my hospital and because of the severe nursing shortage I have been filling in on the night shift. I was picked because of the amount of songs that I have downloaded, but I alone haven’t downloaded all of the songs.

    I allow a lot of people access to my computer, my neighbors have a key to my house, their son uses my computer, I have had a few different roommates that don’t have their own computers and I also allow my sister to use my computer. I feel like many of the other people sued. I was ignorant to the copyright laws and the usage of the p2p sites. I was just some person that wanted to listen to music on my computer, most of the songs I downloaded I already own on cd and I couldn’t figure out how to listen to them from my computer.

    I feel as though I am being harassed and made an example of and I am infuriated. I don’t make a lot of money, I am single and I am overwhelmed at the enormity of the RIAA and what they could do to my life financially. I am so sad I wish that I could fight these people but I am going to have to settle out of court. I will have to charge or make payments on the settlement, right now they are saying no less that 3,000, but I am going to try and negotiate a lower settlement.

    I am currently out of work on disability and have many other more important issues to deal with in life than some executives at the RIAA not receiving their mercedes or vacation bonus this year and suing me for it….You can be assured I will NEVER buy a RIAA cd again.

Does this strike you as reasonable? It’s just one story from the naked city.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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