Twelve-year-old Brianna Lahara's love for TV theme songs, Christina Aguilera and the nursery song If You're Happy and You Know It made her a target of the multibillion-dollar U.S. recording industry. Yesterday, the seventh grader became the industry's first legal trophy in a massive crackdown when she promised never to share songs over the Internet again and her mother agreed to pay $2,000 (U.S.).
Brianna, who lives in subsidized housing in New York, was one of 261 Americans sued on Monday by the Record Industry Association of America. She acknowledged downloading dozens of songs from a service called Kazaa.
"Why are they picking on me?" she asked reporters after learning about the suit Monday night. "My stomach is all in knots." At first, her mother, Sylvia Torres, vowed to fight the industry. "For crying out loud, she's just a child," Ms. Torres said.
But late yesterday the RIAA issued a statement announcing that Brianna's mother had settled for $2,000 and quoting the little girl as saying: "I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love." The release also quoted Ms. Torres as saying: "We understand now that file-sharing the music was illegal. You can be sure Brianna won't be doing it any more."
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Reached at home last night, Ms. Torres declined comment.
Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA's chairman and chief executive officer, heralded Brianna's settlement as "the first of [Monday's] announced lawsuits" and added that "this case illustrates parents' need to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers."
The RIAA has promised to launch more than 1,000 lawsuits in a bid to stop on-line music swapping. No one is being sued in Canada and legal experts say similar suits would be difficult here in part because Canadian copyright law permits some copying of music for personal use. However, the Canadian Record Industry Association said it will continue to warn people who download music.
The RIAA said it is targeting people who have copied more than 1,000 titles and it's seeking damages of up to $150,000 per song (although previous cases have been settled for $3,000).
Brianna downloaded more than 1,000 titles from the internet, including theme songs from the television shows Family Matters and Full House, and tunes recorded by Ms. Aguliera and pop singer Mariah Carey.
Other people being sued are furious and say the heavy-handed tactic won't work.
"It's just crazy how they singled me out of 60 million Americans who download music," Lisa Schamis said yesterday from her apartment in New York.
"I've downloaded a decent number of songs but it's hard to count," she said. "There are a lot of people out there who are making [compact discs] and selling them. I'm not doing that, I just listen to the music."
Ms. Schamis, 26, said she is nervous about the lawsuit and has no idea how to defend herself. "I'm unemployed so they are not going to get much from me. Good luck to them."
Durwood Pickle, 71, was also hit with a lawsuit even though he and his wife don't use the computer in their home near Dallas.
"We have teenaged granddaughters and they went in there and recorded music," said Mr. Pickle's wife, who declined to give her name. "It stays on all the time and I think other people have used our computer. This is scary."
Others facing lawsuits include Timothy Davis, a Yale University professor, who allegedly downloaded about 500 songs, and dozens of teenagers.
Several groups are organizing to fight the RIAA and Web sites are offering help to those being sued.
"More lawsuits is not the answer," said Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco group dedicated to promoting greater access to on-line material. "Does anyone think that suing 60 million American file-sharers is going to motivate them to buy more CDs? File-sharing networks represent the greatest library of music in history, and music fans would be happy to pay for access to it, if only the recording industry would let them."
U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, who has been critical of the industry's strategy, has also promised congressional hearings into the RIAA's tactics. "I don't want to make criminals out of 60 million kids, even though kids and grandkids are doing things they shouldn't be doing," he said.
The recording industry has been struggling for years with falling sales due to Internet copying. One recent report suggested nearly half of people between 12 and 22 download music. The association also said sales of recorded music dropped 14 per cent between 1999 and 2002 to $12.6-billion.
The industry has been trying to find new sources of revenue by operating its own on-line music services and, in the case of Universal Music Group, cutting the price of CDs by as much as 30 per cent. But the popularity of swapping services makes the RIAA's challenge difficult.
"They're losing the battle, and they know it," Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster, one of the most popular on-line music file-sharing sites, said yesterday. He added that he notices a spike in traffic every time the RIAA acts.
The RIAA said it had to sue because its warnings and pleas from musicians were not working. The association is promising an amnesty program for people who "voluntarily identify themselves and pledge to stop illegally sharing music." Under the program, called Clean Slate, people must destroy all music files and sign an affidavit vowing not to download copyright material.
Experts say the industry is in a bind and faces a public-relations nightmare by suing its own consumers, in particular teenagers. But the RIAA says: "The same question can be asked of retailers who go after shoplifters. Music piracy is not a victimless crime."
