RIAA Sues the Wrong Person

Cildar writes "In the 'oops' category, the RIAA was forced to withdraw its suit against a 66 year old computer neophyte (read Apple User for god's sake) when they discovered she thought 'Kazaa' was a magician playing at local kids' birthday parties. The story is as reported in the Boston Globe." Update: 09/24 15:19 GMT by T : Note, the magician crack is a joke ;)

Comments

RIAA also get sued(again)

[deadmongrel]

check out cnn article on this http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/09/24/kazaa.s ues.ap/index.html

Re:RIAA also get sued(again)

[corbettw]

Your link doesn't work.

Magician at Kids' Parties? WTF?

[Schlemphfer]

In the 'oops' category, the RIAA was forced to withdraw its suit against a 66 year old computer neophyte (read Apple User for god's sake) when they discovered she thought 'Kazaa' was a magician playing at local kids' birthday parties.

That's super funny; only one problem. It doesn't seem to mention the magician thing anywhere in the linked article.

Re:Abolish copyright, and this won't happen.

[jdavidb]

However, for some of us, the whole purpose of open source licenses is as a weapon against copyright. RMS talks about the rationalization that it was okay to use copyright, which he did not agree with, as a means to fight against copyright. Hence, copyleft.

It's interesting reading, even if you don't agree.

Re:You've gotta love this part:

[kfg]

Please note that the judge did not dismiss this case, the RIAA withdrew it.

Unlike criminal cases where a judge is involved from the very first, civil cases, i.e. mere private squabbles over money, aren't State issues. It is often months after a filing before the parties have so much as a priliminary hearing and are strongly encouraged by the system to settle things amongst themselves long before that date.

If someone breaks your window and you sue them to recover damages, then they come to you and say "Hey, what gives? Why don't I just fix your damned window?," and you say ok, then there is no longer any issue of law to be settled.

You go down to the courthouse and say, "Ummmmmm, nevermind," and it's over.

No judge.

The RIAA withdrew its complaint (while reserving the right to refile. Nice guys).

KFG

Re:neophyte = Apple User?

[mttlg]

Um, I think they were trying to make the point that she has an Apple as Kazaa doesn't run on Apple, per TFA.

Let's read the comment again:

In the 'oops' category, the RIAA was forced to withdraw its suit against a 66 year old computer neophyte (read Apple User for god's sake) when they discovered she thought 'Kazaa' was a magician playing at local kids' birthday parties.

It is quite clear that neophyte is being equated to Apple user and the comment is meant to be read as "She's obviously clueless about computers, after all, she's an Apple User. And she thinks Kazaa is a magician. What a moron!" In other words, the person who submitted the article was just being a jackass and doesn't deserve to be defended. Her computer's ability to run the software was never brought up; instead, she was portrayed as too clueless to use it. And since there are Kazaa clients available for Macs, the point about her not being able to run it is moot.

Re:honestly think granma has a wireless Lan setup?

[Bobartig]

Apple's WiFi solution (airport) is "falling-off-a-log" easy. If you've already got a cable modem/broadband setup, you pretty much just plug it in. The software included walks you through configuring the network. Its much easier than installing a home based router, for instance. Since every mac since the original iBook (in 1999) has had built-in wi-fi options, its not unusual for her to be running a wireless network.