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12 Year-Old Settles Lawsuit with RIAA For 2 Grand
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 10, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 10, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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Little 12 year old old Brianna LaHara, sued by RIAA for downloading songs off Kazaa, is going to settle with RIAA for $2000. The Daily News' exclusive reports that LaHara's mother agreed to pay up (and said Brianna will not be file sharing anytime soon). RIAA was looking for up to $150,000 for the 1000 songs she downloaded, so maybe $2000 in the scheme of things didn't look so bad to LaHara's mother
Brianna herself says, "I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love." The DN tried contacting two of her favorite singers, Mariah Carey and Chrstina Aguliera (both multimillionaires, the newspaper points out), but there was no comment.
Some file-swappers who haven't settled are freaking out - one is a Columbia senior, sued for downloading Kid Rock and whose father passed away recently; she tells the DN, "I feel I'm at the breaking point. I just don't know how much more tragedy I can handle." Others are unchanged: NYU junior Kathy Aghalarpour says, "That's my life. I make, like, a different CD every week."
The heated debate on Gothamist's comments over file sharing and the state of the music industry from yesterday.
Updated: Emmett at Datatype is starting a collection plate for Brianna. Gothamist is going to kick in some dough, 'cause we were 12 and clueless once. Hell, we're almost 27 and we're still clueless.[Via boingboing]
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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