Thursday , March 28 2024

RIAA Pops Pickle

You couldn’t make up stuff this good. We mentioned earlier today that the RIAA is dropping the suit bomb on 261 file sharers – one of them is 71-year-old Durwood Pickle:

    “Some of my grandkids got in there,” said Durwood Pickle, 71, of Richardson, Texas, who said his son had explained the situation in an e-mail to the recording industry association. “I didn’t do it, and I don’t feel like I’m responsible. It’s been stopped now, I guarantee you that.”

    Pickle said his teen-aged grandchildren used his computer during visits to his home.

    “I’m not a computer-type person,” Pickle said. “They come in and get on the computer. How do I get out of this? Dadgum it, got to get a lawyer on this.” [AP]

EFF – here is your test case. Get in there and defend this man.

On the other hand, this woman is just stupid:

    Another defendant, Lisa Schamis of New York, said her Internet provider warned her two months ago that record industry lawyers had asked for her name and address, but she said she had no idea she might be sued. She acknowledged downloading “lots” of music over file-sharing networks.

    “This is ridiculous,” said Schamis, 26. “People like me who did this, I didn’t understand it was illegal.”

    “I can understand why the music industry is upset about this, but the fact that we had access to this as the public, I don’t think gives them the right to sue us. It’s wrong on their part,” said Schamis, who added she is unemployed and would be unable to pay any large fine or settlement.

At least she’s judgment proof.

Senator Norm is on the case:

    Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., has already promised congressional hearings into how the music industry has identified and tracked the Internet users it’s suing.

    “They have a legimitate interest that needs to be protected, but are they protecting it in a way that’s too broad and over-reaching?” Coleman said. “I don’t want to make criminals out of 60 million kids, even though kids and grandkids are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

Get those kiddies!

    Lawyers said that in some states, such as California, parents are not explicitly liable for copyright infringement by minor children.

    “That question will come up immediately, whether a minor can have the requisite knowledge to be the right defendant,” said Susan Crawford, who teaches cyberlaw at Yale University’s Cardozo law school. “A very young child who didn’t know what they were doing would be a bad defendant for the industry. It will make them look terrible.”

Reaching in the barrel and grabbing the Pickle doesn’t look much better.

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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