[Infowarrior] - RIAA sues a PC-less family for online file sharing

[Richard Forno]

Local family sued by record companies
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04/22/06
By LOWELL VICKERS
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A Rockmart family is being sued for illegal music file sharing, despite the
fact that they don¹t even own a computer.

A federal lawsuit filed this week in Rome by the Recording Industry
Association of America alleges that Carma Walls, of 117 Morgan St.,
Rockmart, has infringed on copyrights for recorded music by sharing files
over the Internet. The lawsuit seeks an injunction and requests unspecified
monetary damages.

The lawsuit states, ³Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant,
without the permission or consent of Plaintiffs, has used, and continues to
use, an online media distribution system to download the copyrighted
recordings, to distribute the copyrighted recordings to the public, and/or
to make the copyrighted recordings available for distribution to others.²

This came as shocking news to the Walls family, who were notified of the
lawsuit Friday afternoon by a newspaper reporter. James Walls, speaking on
behalf of his wife and family, said they have not been served with legal
papers and were unaware of the lawsuit.

After being shown a copy of the court filing, Walls said he found the whole
thing bewildering.

³I don¹t understand this,² Walls said. ³How can they sue us when we don¹t
even have a computer?²

Walls also noted that his family has only resided at their current address
³for less than a year.² He wondered if a prior tenant of the home had
Internet access, then moved, leaving his family to be targeted instead.

However, the RIAA¹s lawsuit maintains that Carma Walls, through the use of a
file-sharing program, has infringed on the copyrights for the following
songs: ³Who Will Save Your Soul,² Jewel; ³Far Behind,² Candlebox; ³Still the
Same,² Bob Seger; ³I Won¹t Forget You,² Poison; ³Open Arms,² Journey;
³Unpretty,² TLC; No Scrubs,² TLC; and ³Saving All My Love for You,² Whitney
Houston.

The lawsuit follows similar wording as in some 3,500 other lawsuits filed by
the RIAA in the United States since June 2003.

Typically, the lawsuits have targeted users of Kazaa, Grokster and other
peer-to-peer Internet services ­ most of which have since been shut down by
RIAA lawsuits. With these services, users typically have an open folder on
the computer that allows other users of the service access to any songs that
have been saved in a digital format, such as MP3 files.

The RIAA lawsuits have come under fire, with critics calling the effort a
³scare tactic² meant to intimidate the public from file sharing activities.

However, in a public statement defending the litigation, the RIAA says its
efforts have been effective in dissuading illegal activity.

³The industry¹s anti-piracy efforts have deterred a sizeable number of
would-be illegal downloaders,² the RIAA statement reads. ³Although a
significant online problem undoubtedly persists, particularly with
hard-core, frequent peer-to-peer users, absent action by the industry, the
illegal down-loading world would be exponentially worse.²