RIAA’s latest target: seriously sick teen
The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suing a seriously ill teenager for illegally sharing music, despite the fact that the family couldn’t afford to represent themselves in court, let alone pay a fine.
19 year old Ciara Sauro from Pittsburgh suffers from pancreatitis, needs an islet cell transplant and is hospitalized weekly. She lives with her single mother, who earns minimum wage.
The background narrative may not excuse them necessarily from the case, but here’s where it gets interesting. They couldn’t afford to defend the case, so a Federal Judge ruled her guilty in absentia and imposed an $8000 fine, which she can’t afford to pay either, due to hospital bills. The amount of songs allegedly shared: 10.
Sauro denies the claim: “Look and see where it (the downloads) came from, and look and see that it’s not me. It’s not fair to do to me.” Better still, the Internet account in the lawsuit was opened by her estranged father, who doesn’t live at the same address.
It’s really a sad state of affairs when the seriously ill can be hounded like this without any affordable legal recourse. The law is for the rich, so they say. The good news according to a local report, Pittsburgh Attorney James Brink has offered to represent the Sauros for free and will ask a judge to reopen the case.
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Dec 2, 2008
One thing lost in all these suits is that what happens when someone is falsely identified. Claiming that “someone” at a computer download, so the person registered with the ISP becomes the target even if it is known that person didn't do a thing. This then becomes a false filing or fraudulent court complaint. The person for whom the false claim is against then becomes a crime victim especially when the plaintiff knows the target was to wrong person. Now the target, defendant files with the victim witness program as a crime victim. The Victim witness program does nothing. They ignore the fact the court is used to file a complainant they knew to be false. The Justice Department as well ignores the crime victim. The crime victim then succumbs to the perpetrator signing a confidential agreement and the victim is barred from asking for charges. Because Justice has ignored this crime victim, then the next time that victim becomes a juror, that crime victim needs to ignore justice and exercise Jury Nullification. When enough juries have ignored justice, then justice will get the message and protect targets as required to do in the victim witness programs. If justice were on the side of law and order, these suits where a suit is based on mere suspicion would screech to a halt.
Jan 19, 2009
Hello, for a long time I read your blog, thanks for that that write interesting and
useful posts.I consider that blogers it is possible to name many journalists.
Good luck
Oct 31, 2011
Wow, an attorney with a heart! Is that possible? There is a God.