Après 15 années d’existence, le forum historique de Framasoft, ferme ses portes.
Pour les nostalgiques et les curieux, il reste toujours possible de consulter les discussions mais c’est maintenant le forum
Framacolibri qui prend la relève.
Si vous avez des questions, on se retrouve là-bas…
No local headlines have been entered
Family sued by recording industry
04/24/06
Lowell Vickers
Respond to this story
Email this story to a friend
A Rockmart family is being sued for ongoing illegal music file sharing, despite no longer having a computer.
A federal lawsuit filed Friday in Rome by the Recording Industry Association of America alleges that Carma Walls, 32, of a Morgan Street residence, has infringed on copyrights for recorded music by sharing files ***spam*** the Internet.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction and unspecified monetary damages.
The lawsuit states, “Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant, without the permission or consent of Plaintiffs, has used, AND CONTINUES TO USE (emphasis added), 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.”
This came as shocking news to the Walls family, who were notified of the lawsuit Friday afternoon by a newspaper reporter. James Walls said his family was unaware they are being sued.
After being shown a copy of the court filing, Walls said he found the whole thing bewildering.
“I don’t understand this,” Walls said. “How can they sue us when we don’t even have a computer?”
Carma Walls said that the family did once own a computer – for about two months. They haven’t had a computer in their home for more than a year, she said.
During the short time the family had use of a computer, she did download some music from Internet sites, she said. But she had no inkling that the sites she visited or the practice itself were illegal.
“I thought it was like recording songs off the radio like we did when we were kids,” she said.
The RIAA’s lawsuit maintains that Carma Walls, through the use of a file-sharing program, has infringed on the copyrights for ***spam*** songs: “Who Will Save Your Soul,” Jewel; “Far Behind,” Candlebox; “Still the Same,” Bob Seger; “I Won’t Forget You,” Poison; “Open Arms,” Journey; “Unpretty,” TLC; No Scrubs,” TLC; and “Saving All My Love for You,” Whitney Houston.
The lawsuit follows similar wording as some 3,500 other lawsuits filed by the RIAA against U.S. residents since June 2003.
Typically, the lawsuits have targeted users of Kazaa, Grokster and other peer-to-peer Internet sites – most of which have since been shut down by RIAA lawsuits. With these services, users typically had an open folder on the computer that allowed other users access to songs saved in a digital format, such as MP3 files.
The RIAA lawsuits have come under fire, with critics calling the effort a “scare tactic” meant to intimidate the public from file sharing.
But the RIAA says its efforts have been effective in dissuading illegal activity.
“The industry’s anti-piracy efforts have deterred a sizeable number of would-be illegal downloaders,” the RIAA statement reads. “Although a significant online problem undoubtedly persists, particularly with hard-core, frequent peer-to-peer users, absent action by the industry, the illegal downloading world would be exponentially worse.”
While the court papers filed last week do not specify a monetary amount, the RIAA typically files claims demanding several thousands of dollars. The record companies claim that by participating in file-sharing programs, users made songs potentially available to thousands of other people.
Most defendants have settled out of court for a reduced amount.
The RIAA named ***spam*** as plaintiffs in the case against Mrs. Walls: Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC and Atlantic Recording Corporation.
Utilisateur(s) parcourant actuellement ce forum : Aucun utilisateur inscrit