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The 83-Year-Old Dead File Swapper
93,000 writes "Gertrude Walton, a deceased eighty-three-year-old woman, was named as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by a group of record companies. They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name 'smittenedkitten.' Needless to say, the suit has since been dropped."
From the article: Chianumba said she faxed a copy of her mother's death certificate to record company officials several days before the lawsuit was filed. She said she did that in response to a letter from the company regarding the upcoming legal filing.
She should have let the whole thing go to court. It would make the RIAA look far sillier when a computer illiterate dead woman's name is cleared in front of a judge rather than before hand.
Trolling is a art,
I personally lament Gertrude's passing away. What a great memorial. Just prior to death, put a file server away in a hidden closet in a house with many years of ISP paid for in advance. Serve up those files with no possible recourse from RIAA and other leeches. Maybe a foundation could be started such that the file repository is transferred from near-death person to near-death person. As the slow wheels of the RIAA start legal proceedings, the person becomes beyond even their reach. Not so much the "make a wish" foundation as the "make a statement" foundation.
What's the point indeed.
Despite what the ravenous morons on this site will now scream, the RIAA was collecting information and planning BEFORE she died. They just happened to file the lawsuit AFTER she died. They got the wrong person, yes, but it's only coincidence that she happened to be dead by the time they actually filed the suit.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Is it okay to violate music copyrights?
Yes. Just like it's okay to smoke weed. Copyright and prohibition are both wrong. They put the manufacture and distribution into the hands of criminals. I'd rather not deal with criminals. Real businesses have better quality control.
If so, does that mean nobody should bitch in the next "GPL source code theft" article?
Yes. "GPL source code theft" is impossible. There's nothing to stop anyone from using, sharing, giving, selling it. With that in mind, how is any megacorp that "stole" the code going to make their millions from it? How are they going to keep me from getting the source?
Obviously the wrong people will occassionally get named in these things due to the nature of IPs and the Internet.
And you consider THAT okay?? I find copyright violations a little less offensive(a lot actually) than the legal system being used to harass innocent people.
(notice the artists getting ripped off are never mentioned in those equations).
You are quite the redundant one aren't you? They are mentioned all the time. I've pointed that out before, and you chose to misinterpret that back then also.(How soon they forget...)
What?