The PR War

Submitted by Oakier

Senators backed the RIAA's first wave of legal moves, and media did their best to make it look like a good thing, honest!

After skimming stories about how the RIAA had gone too far, I was suprised to see good ol' Orrin Hatch couldn't keep his mouth shut. He just had to go support suing 12 year old girls and making them cry.

Senate lawmakers yesterday (Sept. 9) expressed support for the Recording Industry Association of America's legal tactics during a hearing on peer-to-peer networks, saying the music industry has the right to initiate lawsuits against egregious infringers.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said "it's great" that the first slate of lawsuits, initiated this week, was widely reported on TV and in daily papers, because "it lets parents know what their kids are doing when they're downloading."

Hatch's comments followed front-page coverage in New York newspapers that one defendant in an RIAA suit was local 12-year-old Brianna Lahara, who allegedly offered more than 1,000 illegal music files through KaZaA. The trade group yesterday said it had settled the suit for $2,000.

"We understand now that file-sharing the music was illegal," the girl's mother told the RIAA.

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Note that the quote from the mother is in direct contradiction to her first quote of fighting this thing and how unreasonable it was.

She was obviously fed that quote by the RIAA and told to spout it as part of the settlement agreement.

Personally I find this whole PR war thing offensive, and wish that Orrin 'Nuke the PC's' Hatch would get a clue.

I only wish I lived in his state so I could do everything in my power to remove him from office.

Ah well...