[Seattle-editorial] FI: Single Mom Overwhelmed by Recording Industry Suit

[sheri at speakeasy.org]

-----Original Message-----
From: Art McGee [mailto:amcgee at virtualidentity.org]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 11:44 PM
To: 'MediaTank Media Activists'
Subject: [MediaAct] Single Mom Overwhelmed by Recording Industry Suit

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8765723.htm

SiliconValley.com

May 26, 2004

Single Mom Overwhelmed by Recording Industry Suit

By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, Pioneer Press

Tammy Lafky has a computer at home but said she doesn't use
it. "I don't know how," the 41-year-old woman said, somewhat
sheepishly.

But her 15-year-old daughter, Cassandra, does. And what
Cassandra may have done, like millions of other teenagers
and adults around the world, landed Lafky in legal hot water
this week that could cost her thousands of dollars.

Lafky, a sugar mill worker and single mother in Bird Island,
a farming community 90 miles west of St. Paul, became the
first Minnesotan sued by name by the recording industry this
week for allegedly downloading copyrighted music illegally.

The lawsuit has stunned Lafky, who earns $12 an hour and
faces penalties that top $500,000. She says she can't even
afford an offer by the record companies to settle the case
for $4,000.

The ongoing music downloading war is being fought on one
side by a $12 billion music industry that says it is
steadily losing sales to online file sharing. On the other
side, untold millions of people -- many of them too young to
drive -- who have been downloading free music off
file-sharing sites with odd names like Kazaa and Grokster
and who are accusing the music industry of price gouging and
strong-arm tactics.

Lafky says she doesn't download free music. Her daughter did
last year when she was 14, but neither of them knew it was
illegal because all of Cassandra's friends at school were
doing it.

"She says she can't believe she's the only one being sued,"
Lafky said. "She told me, 'I can't be the only one.
Everybody else does it.' "

A record company attorney from Los Angeles contacted Lafky
about a week ago, telling Lafky she could owe up to
$540,000, but the companies would settle for $4,000.

"I told her I don't have the money," Lafky said. "She told
me to go talk to a lawyer and I told her I don't have no
money to talk to a lawyer."

Lafky said she clears $21,000 a year from her job and gets
no child support.

The music industry isn't moved. It has sued nearly 3,000
people nationwide since September and settled with 486 of
them for an average of $3,000 apiece, according to the
Recording Industry Association of America, which represents
the major and minor labels that produce 90 percent of the
recorded music in the United States.

"Our goal in these cases and in this program (of lawsuits)
that we're trying to achieve is to deliver the message that
it's illegal and wrong," said Stanley Pierre-Louis, senior
vice president for legal affairs for the RIAA.

Since the music industry began its lawsuit campaign,
awareness of the illegality of downloading copyrighted music
has increased several-fold this year, Pierre-Louis said.

"And we're trying to create a level playing field for legal
online (music) services," he added.

These services sell music for under a dollar a song, and
some have become well known, like Apple Computer's iPod
service, which advertises heavily on TV. Others are just
getting off the ground.

Pierre-Louis said the RIAA does not comment on individual
cases like Lafky's, but he said the music industry typically
finds its targets by logging onto the same file-sharing
services that the file-sharers do. Its agents then comb the
play lists for names of songs that are copyrighted and that
they believe are being illegally shared.

The record companies follow the songs when they're
downloaded onto computers, and they also note how many
copyrighted songs are stored on that computer's hard drive
memory, because those songs are often "uploaded" or shared
with others through the file-sharing service.

Since January, the industry has filed 2,947 lawsuits, most
against "John Does," until the record companies went to
court to get names of the downloaders from their Internet
service providers. Last month, the music industry filed 477
lawsuits nationwide, including two "John Doe" lawsuits
against users at the University of Minnesota whose
identities have not been revealed.

The industry is particularly keen on stopping people who
keep their computers open on the Internet for others to
share. On Lafky's computer, for instance, record companies
like Universal Music Group, Sony and Warner Bros. found
songs by groups they publish like Bloodhound Gang, Savage
Garden and Linkin Park. Also found were songs by artists
Michelle Branch, MC Hammer and country stars Shania Twain
and Neal McCoy, which not only were downloaded but also
available to others to upload, according to the lawsuit.

Federal copyright laws allow for penalties that range from
$750 per infringement or song up to $30,000 per
infringement, Pierre-Louis said.

If a defendant is found to have committed a violation "in a
willful manner," he or she can be fined $150,000 per song,
he said.

The record companies are willing to negotiate cases
individually if someone says they cannot afford the
penalties. So far, no case has gone to trial, the RIAA said.

Pierre-Louis said the RIAA isn't afraid of a consumer
backlash. "We're facing a daunting challenge and we have to
face it head-on," he said.

Tammy Lafky is facing her own challenge. She said she
doesn't know what she'll do. "I told her," she said,
referring to the record company lawyer, "if I had the money
I would give it to you, but I don't have it."

---

Leslie Brooks Suzukamo covers telecommunications and
technology and can be reached at
lsuzukamo at pioneerpress.comor or 651-228-5475.

Copyright (c) 2004 Pioneer Press and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved.
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