Now we don’t like to delve into politics here at GnW, but sometimes we can’t help it. The Electronic Frontier Foundation [ http://eff.org/ ] is taking on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and their insane lawsuits against 12-year old kids (for copyright infringement, apparently the RIAA wants $2,000 from this girl for mp3s she may or may not have downloaded, and she and her family live in public housing in New York) and families that don’t even own a computer in the household. Stop the insanity! The EFF is looking to beef up their petition to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Committees to try and get someone to tell the RIAA to stop terrorizing innocent people and to stop filing these ridiculous lawsuits against people. The EFF’s stance is that “copyright law shouldn’t make criminals out of 60 million Americans,” and I definitely agree with that. Here’s a little tidbit from the statement:
To The United States Congress:
We are the customers and former customers of the member labels of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We love music and will gladly pay a fair price for it, but we are outraged by the RIAA’s tactics in suing ordinary Americans for filesharing.
We condemn the RIAA’s choice to force the family of a 12 year-old girl to forfeit $2,000 – money that could have gone to feed, clothe and educate this honor student. We stand with the retirees, parents, children and others who have been caught in the RIAA’s line of fire.
We respect reasonable copyright law, but we strongly oppose copyright enforcement that comes at the expense of privacy, due process and fair application of the law.
We urge you, as our representatives in Congress, to stop this madness.
Hear, hear! Head on over and check out the petition, and add your name today!