Big Music sues schoolgirl
p2p news view / p2pnet:- p2pnet editor Jon Newton produces a regular column for TechNewsWorld.
Here`s his latest >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Big Music Sues Schoolgirl, Mainstream Media Doesn’t Care
By Jon Newton – TechNewsWorld
In a report on the upcoming P2P Litigation Summit, I mentioned “Big Music wants Britanny Chan,” which describes how the Big Four are using the RIAA to terrorize a 14-year-old Michigan girl and her mother. Having already failed once to frighten Brittany through her mother, the cartel is now going after her again, this time as an individual.
Britanny was 13 when it all started, but she’s now 14 and in this latest move, the Big Four are demanding that the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan appoint a Guardian ad Litem – in other words, an official legal guardian – so they can go after her personally.
No Dice
In a bizarre marketing scheme, on behalf of Britain’s EMI Group, France’s Vivendi Universal, Sony BMG from Japan and Germany and Warner Music, ostensibly American but headed up by a Canadian, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been trying to sue Americans into buying “product.”
The campaign is failing miserably. More and more people are logging onto the P2P networks every day, but nonetheless, the cartel continues to terrorize very ordinary men, women and children through lawsuits that, apart from anything else, seriously waste the time of already over-burdened courts. They achieve nothing beyond putting innocent people such as Tanya Andersen, a disabled Oregon mother, through unbearable torment.
By 7:15 am Pacific Time on October 6, the Chan post had pulled 39,567 readers in the fastest rise for any p2pnet story since we started counting. At the time, it was the second most-read item, the Number One spot still held by the “We’re Not Taking Any More” Club post with “RIAA Victim Talks to p2pnet” at number three. No other posts had come anywhere near these kinds of reads.
A little more than an hour later, the Britanny piece had pulled in 50,463 readers and I predicted the cartel’s persecution of the 14-year-old school-girl would become our most-read item ever within the hour. But I was wrong. It didn’t take that long. And as I write this at 10:13 am PT on October 10, the number of reads has reached 107,106 and is still climbing.
And that’s only p2pnet.
Getting at the Truth
People are paying attention online, but mainstream reporters aren’t covering the Britanny Chan outrage. Nor are they showing any interest in the stories about the three American mothers — Patricia Santangelo, Dawnell Leadbetter and Tanya Andersen — who, by refusing to cave in to the RIAA’s spurious “settlement” offers, have started a protest which could spread around the world.
And yet the traditional media instantly generate shlock horror headlines every time the RIAA announces it has sued another 750 innocent men, women and children.
Is this lack of coverage significant? Is it linked to the fact large numbers of the corporate media are owned or controlled (through advertising) by the entertainment and software cartels?
Consumers would willingly pay any reasonable amount for downloads, but the Big Four are determined to milk them for all they’re worth, and I use the word “milked” advisedly.
However, for the first time in history, the only real currency, raw information, is available to anyone who wants to mine it. This means the former cash-cows are becoming customers, again — people with free choice who can, and do, communicate with each other and who can, and do, make informed decisions based on information gleaned from the blogs and news sites that are slowly taking the place of the traditional print and electronic media outlets.
The Chan story is only one of the first to highlight the reality that customers are regaining control.
Sooner or later, news of this rapidly spreading consumer revolution will be picked up and reported by traditional print and electronic not controlled by vested interests.
Stay tuned.
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representative. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
October 11th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
They might not right now, and that may be because of ownerships farther up the chain… but people like us have to make them care, regardless of who owns them.
Only solution I can see, is having large groups of people send letters to multiple news media in their areas! Complain, and let them know that they should be covering these types of stories… If the 9pm news is able to cover a story about a old woman’s cat up the tree… they should be able to cover stories about the RIAA sueing a little girl! <_<
These letter can be complaints, questions, or even threats… Tell them you will stop purchasing their paper, or stop watching their show, unless they start covering stories like these.
Yah, obviously news media can’t cover all of the news out there… but they can sacrifice the pointless little stories, to fit more in if they have too. Something as big as the RIAA sueing children MUST be in the news… no question about it! <_<
October 11th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
to play devils advocate here didn’t the media jump on the story of the New York Single mom with a young girl who downloaded during their first round of lawsuits two years ago? There was an outrage which prompted a congressional hearing. suddenly it stopped, like turning off a water faucet. and nothing has been heard since about any of the suits other than what the RIAA has announced in press releases.
One can only guess (quite accurately I’m sure) that there was a potential PR disaster that was hushed behind the scenes. that could include political pressure on Congress and the news outlets they own and financial pressure on outlets they don’t own.
However, is there anyone out there reading this who really knows for sure (through interviews, confidential statements etc…) why this has happened?? The media started at first to be interested.
October 11th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
But we can’t dictate the news, we’d be almost as bad as the cartels. What we can do though is demand balance. Somehow the reality of the situation puts something of a dampener on it all.
October 11th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
A bumper sticker campaign might be appropriate in order to inform those who still don’t use the Internet as a source for news. I Myself have given up on the Lamescream media.
October 12th, 2005 at 2:16 am
Come on, virtually all mainstream media is owned by entertainment companies!!!
Fox and CNN cover Survivor & Brittanys pregnancy, Thats news???
They will never cover anything like this, it would be admitting defeat.