RIAA sues innocent woman

The RIAA has been forced to drop its lawsuit against a 66-year-old woman who's never downloaded or shared a song in her life.

Sarah Seabury Ward was one of the 261 people the RIAA netted in its subpoena sweep, the spearhead of its sue 'em all campaign.

But Ward is a "computer neophyte" who never, "installed file-sharing software, let alone downloaded hard-core rap about baggy jeans and gold teeth, according to letters sent to the recording industry's agents by her lawyer, Jeffrey Beeler," reports a September 24 Boston Globe here.

"Beeler complained to the RIAA, demanding an apology and 'dismissal with prejudice' of the lawsuit, which would prohibit future lawsuits against her," the Globe story continues. "Foley Hoag, the Boston firm representing the record labels, on Friday dropped the case, but without prejudice.

"Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant," Colin J. Zick, the Foley Hoag lawyer, wrote to Beeler.

The RIAA had to abandon its attack on Ward. It had no choice, although it's saying, through its lawyer, that more may come. However, the RIAA screw-up begs the question: How many more people are being pilloried by the RIAA are similarly innocent?

A number of people have already said they had no idea they were sharing because their p2p app automatically defaulted to the incoming directory, revealing its contents to uploaders. Others have said their children or friends were responsible and they didn't know sharing was going on.

'So? You're guilty anyway,' says the RIAA.

There are other scenarios under which an innocent victim can be (and probably has been) accused by the RIAA. But of course, since the RIAA tactic is to terrify people into settling out of court, instances don't come to light.

In the meanwhile, "When the RIAA announced they were going on this litigation crusade, we knew there was going to be someone like Sarah Ward," Cindy Cohn, legal director for the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is quoted as saying.

The lawsuit claimed that Ward had illegally shared more than 2,000 songs through Kazaa and threatened to hold her liable for up to $150,000 for each song. The plaintiffs were Sony Music, BMG, Virgin, Interscope, Atlantic, Warner Brothers, and Arista.

Among the songs she was accused of sharing: 'I'm a Thug,' by the rapper Trick Daddy.

Other defendants have blamed their children for using file-sharing software, but Ward has no children living with her, Beeler said. Moreover, she uses a MAC and Kazaa runs only on PCs.

According to the lawsuit, recording industry investigators tracked the file-sharing activities of a Kazaa user with the moniker Heath7 and found the IP. The RIAA, "then issued a subpoena to Comcast, the user's Internet service provider, demanding the name, address, and e-mail address of the person behind the IP address," says the Globe.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Sarah Eder, would not comment, citing customer privacy concerns. Comcast always notifies its customers after a subpoena compels the company to release information about them, she said.

The EFF has counseled about 30 of the 261 people sued, Cohn said, adding that some have settled for fear of spending too much money fighting powerful corporations.

"Jonathan Zittrain, an associate professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School, said the dismissal shows that the record companies may find it tough to prevail if their lawsuits go to court," adds the story. "Their legal strategy assumes that most defendants will settle rather than fight, and the lawsuits are so damaging to their public image that they cannot afford protracted legal battles with alleged file-swappers."