RIAA Kicks Off Exciting New Youth-Outreach Program

For all the bad things you can say about the people who run the RIAA–that they’ve bullied consumers, that they’ve misrepresented their own clients, that they insist on playing a legal wack-a-mole game they lost years ago–you could never accuse the organization of allegedly threatening a minor. Until now!

A disabled single mother from Beaverton has filed a federal lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America, claiming that she is the victim of abusive legal tactics, threats and illegal spying as part of an overzealous campaign to crack down on music pirating.

The recording industry sued Tanya J. Andersen, 44, in 2005, accusing her of violating copyright laws by illegally downloading music onto her computer. Andersen claims in a suit she filed last week in U.S. District Court in Oregon that the recording industry refused to drop its case after its own expert supported her claims of innocence.

Instead, industry officials threatened to interrogate Andersen’s 10-year-old daughter, Kylee, if she didn’t pay thousands of dollars. The intimidation included attempts to contact Kylee directly. A woman claiming to be Kylee’s grandmother called the girl’s former elementary school inquiring about her attendance, according to Andersen’s suit.

The whole story is amazing: Anderson claims that the RIAA humiliated her in public and demanded she cough up thousands of dollars, and that even after the organization realized she wasn’t the one downloading songs, still insisted she pay the fines. Even the Yakuza wouldn’t stoop that low.

Woman: I’m no music pirate [The Oregonian]