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RIAA Settles With 12-Year-Old Downloader
Murdock037 writes "It looks like the RIAA has rushed to settle with 12-year-old Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter's song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. Said Brianna: 'I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love.' What a relief this must be for the Rolling Stones."
That was pretty generous of them! Instead of taking a few million lifetimes to pay off the billions of dollars of damage little Brianna might have done by being such a notorious filesharer, now it should only take, what, 5 - 10 years for her welfare recipient mother pay off her daughter's 'crimes'?
If a 12 year old murdered someone, they would still be charged. The charges would not be as heavy as an adults, of course. But a 2000$ fine is better than the multimillion dollar fine they could have been given.
12 year olds are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Brianna learned a hard lesson.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
"It looks like the family of a Texas murder victim has rushed to settle with 12-year-old Timmy McGee, after serving him with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the family for her son's cold-blooded killing, which he had thought was legal. Said Timmy: 'I am sorry for what I have done. I love humans and don't want to hurt the people I love.' What a relief this must be for families of murder victims everywhere."
You have to realize that it is the "recording artists" who have blind justice in their favor.
Looking at this objectively, we see that there is a "little girl" who loves an artist's music. If she wants to own a copy of the artist's music, she should pay him a fee for it. You see, the artist is a trader: he/she provides a product to trade in exchange for another's product of equal value.
Your comment that "art is for everyone and is priceless" is one of the most bullshit comments I have ever read. You fail to consider that it is only the artist that makes art possible. Accordingly, everyone does not have a claim to the artist's creation, only those who have paid the artist for his art. Further, by saying that art is "priceless" you are saying that the artist cannot (the art is worth an infinite amount) or should not (the art is worth nothing) be paid for his work, which is absurd.
It was the girl who was in the wrong, not the "recording artist" or the RIAA. She stole their property, it was fully within their rights to prosecute her.
Come on! They have a computer, a connection (I'm assuming dialup, but considering the nice cars driving arround the hood a few blocks away she might have DSL/Cable) and a harddrive big enough to hold a considerable ammount of music.
Nah. If they REALLY needed the $2000, they wouldn't own that PC.
Blar.
Nope. No matter what they say they knew it was wrong. If we give to them because "they wern't the wiser", then it instantly becomes the excuse for the other 260 people. Are you going to give to them as well? Will you give to me when the RIAA breaks down my door and I use the excuse "I thought it came with my DSL account..."