The RIAA has made quite the business out of shaking down folks they accuse of uploading music. This has been covered at length before, but they basically send a “settlement offer” with each lawsuit. The offer says (more or less) “pay $3500 and this goes away.” They also make it clear that just taking the case to court will likely cost more than $3500 in legal fees, suggesting it’s not even worth fighting it — which in some parts of the world sounds very much like extortion.
Plenty of people have done the math and suggested that this little business of suing their biggest fans has turned into a nice little profit center for the industry. Digg is pointing to the case of one woman, a student at MIT, who is trying to talk to the RIAA after being offered just such a settlement. When she points out that she’s a poor college student, the RIAA rep kindly suggests that perhaps dropping out of school will make it easier to pay off the fine.
Related
- RIAA Seeks Estimated $97.8 Billion From MTU Student
- RIAA Will Drop Cases If You Point Out That An IP Address Isn’t A Person
- Students Dropping Out of School to Pay RIAA Legal Fees
- Back to School for Reading, Writing, and RIAA Lawsuits?
- Boston University student fights back against the RIAA
Thats fucked up ….. I am sure they wouldnt think it was so amusing to pick on the little guys if people started to hax there bank accounts
I agree with Morph. Whatever happened to the old Hackers Of The World Unite? It’s more than time to hit back. This is simply not right and just think of it reminds me of those old futuristic scifi movies where some fascist regime runs the world…..it’s getting there. I know it is.
i cant wait until they sue some mob boss and they will be like “make these fees go away or ill put a hit on you”
I keep saying it let’s kill the RIAA guys
crash peer i would use a proxy b4 someone says ur planing an attack
lol only kidding
how messed up is that? well i hope she doesnt and goes onto be rich and countersuit the riaa for all there worth!
Well I have said it before and I will say it again I am waiting for a time when a lawsuit is filed against the RIAA or MPAA for rackettering and extortion. This woman might just win if she filed. Those comments would certianly not go over well with a judge.
This is basically the DEFINITION of extortion…