RIAA FAIL! again

Music piracy is a touchy subject. Some say it’s a symptom of the restrictions put on by the music labels, some just because people are evil scumbags that steal everything they can get their hands on (I surmise that this is pretty much what the RIAA thinks). Whatever you think, with current law as it stands today in a majority of countries, music piracy is by definition illegal.

The RIAA as most people know by now is on a campaign of litigation in an effort to make examples of people like Jamie (no not our Jamie, this Jamie) and they’ve gotten a lot of flack for it and rightly so in my opinion, going after those who can’t defend themselves. But this has to be one of the biggest FAILs of the RIAA litigation career: Sue someone for downloading songs who doesn’t even own a computer!

Mavis Roy fought back against the RIAA member, Universal Music Group and won. The New Hampshire resident didn’t answer for several months to the letters from UMG directing her to a website where she could ‘pay off her debt’ with her credit card, thinking they were a scam. If I didn’t know better that would sound like a scam to me also. UMG was forced to settle out of court, as a decision in favour of Roy would have set precedent that could impact other cases involving the MediaSentry IP tracking system, which has serious flaws (like we all know it does). Unfortunately Roy didn’t get any compensation on this occasion, but if I were her I would have gone for everything I could get out of the bastards.

When will the RIAA learn, that suing individuals like this is only giving you a bad press (for good reason) and that litigation is not the answer? RIAASS indeed.

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