No matter
whom the RIAA suspects of file sharing, whether they are dead or alive or even without a PC, they will try their best to force settlements out of the person. In this case, they are after a home health aide in Brooklyn, New York, who claims she never operated a computer, never mind switch one on. Now, she has had to get an attorney to request a pre-motion conference with the District Court judge in order make a summary judgement to dismiss her case. Her attorneys and relatives insist she is innocent.
While
there was no computer in her apartment for the time the RIAA accused her of illegally sharing out content, apparently her apartment had an Internet connection over the time which was connected up to an insecure wireless router. As a result, even though neither she nor her family had access to a computer over that period, it would have been possible for someone outside of the apartment to connect to the wireless router and operate a file sharing application, which would have been possible during the accused time.
Unfortunately, no matter how often her son, Mr. Raymond explained the situation to the RIAA's attorneys, they kept harassing him saying that she must pay $4,500 in settlements for the music they claim she downloaded. It seems like they have no interest in getting the issue resolved, believe what the RIAA want them to believe and only what her to settle. Thanks to RTV71 for letting us know about the following news:
|
A home health aide in Brooklyn, New York, has been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally downloading music files, even though the woman claims she has never used a computer, or even turned one on. Attorneys for Marie Lindor with the New York City-based firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman sent a letter Thursday to Judge David G. Trager of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York asking for a summary judgment dismissing the RIAA's complaint, along with attorney fees. 'Ms. Lindor is a home health aide who not only never 'downloaded, distributed, or made available for distribution' any files, but has never purchased, used, or even turned on a computer in her life," wrote Morlan Ty Rogers, an attorney with the firm. |
If this is how bad the RIAA treats someone without a PC, then chances are that there are a lot more users that the RIAA have sued who do have a PC, but are totally innocent. As long as they have filed a lawsuit for what they assume is a copyright infringing user, it seems that all they are interested in is getting settlements out of the individual no matter how innocent that person may be. It is like a traffic cop writing speeding tickets out to people they assume have sped before, even though they may never have driven a car!
On the other hand, assuming that an outside user connected to her wireless router was the culprit, this clearly shows that there is a lot more than fraudsters spying on people's data to worry about if one does not secure their Wi-Fi connection.
Feel free to discuss about the legal issues of file sharing on our Music
Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues
forum.
Source: Red Herring - Industries
