The RIAA took a bit of a PR hit lately, when their case against 13-year-old Brittany Chan was dismissed by the court.
In late 2004, the RIAA’s file-sharing sniffers thought they detected some illegal downloaded songs at the Chan residence. They filed a lawsuit against Candy Chan (Brittany’s mother) but she insisted she hadn’t done anything. Eventually they dismissed their case.
Then the lawyers came back to attack Brittany, but since she’s a minor they included a requirement of guardian ad litem so they could hold her mother responsible for her actions. Because this is a complicated (and expensive) process, the court asked the RIAA’s dogs to provide a plan for how to pay for the guardianship. The RIAA responded by saying they shouldn’t have to pay anything because their case was so strong. Never mind “innocent until proven guilty”… such trivialties of the law are beneath the RIAA.
In the end, the court dismissed the case because the RIAA never answered the court’s question. Bummer for them.
Idiots.