but without the ability to prove which ones are illegal, they shouldn't be able to accuse her of anything... your argument that she has 5,000 songs so it's obvious that she's involoved in illegal activity smacks of profiling...
If I added up all of my vinyl, cassette and CD tracks, it would be quite a bit more than 5,000... if I transfered all of those to my HD, would I a be a criminal as well..?
Until the courts rule definitively on whether or not a digital copy is covered under 'fair use', I don't see how the RIAA can sue someone for downloading anything. Granted, they are suing in civil, rather than criminal, court so they only need a "preponderance of evidence" when presenting a case, but they would still have to prove that, at some point, I hadn't paid for a copy of that song.
Which is of course, something they cannot do.
Sharing files is different story because you are making available copies of copyrighted material, which is illegal. Simply making or owning a copy is not, in and of itself, inherently illegal.
Of course, this is all just window dressing around the fact that she was presented with a threat of a suit from a collection agency on behalf of the RIAA, thereby skipping the courts altogether.
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but without the ability to prove which ones are illegal, they shouldn't be able to accuse her of anything... your argument that she has 5,000 songs so it's obvious that she's involoved in illegal activity smacks of profiling... If I added up all of my vinyl, cassette and CD tracks, it would be quite a bit more than 5,000... if I transfered all of those to my HD, would I a be a criminal as well..?
Until the courts rule definitively on whether or not a digital copy is covered under 'fair use', I don't see how the RIAA can sue someone for downloading anything. Granted, they are suing in civil, rather than criminal, court so they only need a "preponderance of evidence" when presenting a case, but they would still have to prove that, at some point, I hadn't paid for a copy of that song. Which is of course, something they cannot do. Sharing files is different story because you are making available copies of copyrighted material, which is illegal. Simply making or owning a copy is not, in and of itself, inherently illegal. Of course, this is all just window dressing around the fact that she was presented with a threat of a suit from a collection agency on behalf of the RIAA, thereby skipping the courts altogether.