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RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the luddite-encouragement dept.

boarder8925 writes "Marie Lindor, a home health aide who has never bought, used, or even turned on a computer in her life, was sued by the RIAA in Brooklyn federal court for using an 'online distribution system' to 'download, distribute, and/or make available for distribution' plaintiff's music files. She has requested a pre-motion conference in anticipation of making a summary judgment motion dismissing the complaint and awarding her attorneys fees under the Copyright Act."

2 of 637 comments (clear)

  1. Re:TV License Parallel by alan.briolat · · Score: 5, Informative
    ... I hope the RIAA get a really embarrasing and well publicised dressing down.
    Yes, we could hope that. The same way we hope for it every other time they do something REALLY stupid. Instead they will most likely drop charges, pay fees, and make up some story about how they were the "good guys" in all this allowing this person to not be financially ruined. If it was a normal person bring a claim against the defendant, it would be thrown out, but the RIAA keeps a few people in the legal system employed with the number of high-profile cases they keep bringing, so it isn't in their (the court's) best interest to publically humiliate one of their sources of work.

    In a fair world this would be subject to a painful (for the RIAA) counter-suit. But then again, in a fair world you wouldn't have corporations running around bankrupting whoever they felt like just to make an example of them in the first place.

    I for one welcome our new Corporate Overlords! Oh, they aren't new...
    --
    I swear we should be allowed to give mod points to sigs... "-1, Offtopic"
  2. Re:Will this work?? by judmarc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, it's not a motion to dismiss, but a motion for summary judgment. That's a key difference. A motion to dismiss would *admit* everything the RIAA says, then contend it still doesn't have a case - so no necessity for evidence, because there are no facts in dispute.

    Where a motion to dismiss says, in effect, "Even if you're right, so what?", a motion for summary judgment says "We'll show you facts that are so clear we don't even need to go through the hassle of a full trial." Then you provide evidence (usually by means of an affidavit or some other way short of the full trial-witness-cross examination thing). If the other side can't seriously dispute those facts, and those facts indeed add up to "You win!", cool - you've just saved everyone the time and expense of a full trial.

    Yes, IAAL.