RIAA sues children

Today I read that the Recording Industries Association of America has given up their file-sharing lawsuit against Patricia Santangelo, a single mother. Now that she has been bankrupted by fighting their lawsuit against her, they are ditching that suit to pursue her kids.

I don't know if Santangelo's kids are guilty of copyright infringement. If they are like most American kids with computer access, they probably are guilty. But I do know that we shouldn't give a cent to companies that are involved in bringing lawsuits against kids for copyright infringement.

These lawsuits do not recoup any money for the RIAA, let alone the musicians who are represented by them. In fact, the RIAA has a lawsuit in progress at the moment aimed at reducing the amount of money that artists get for their recordings.

I can't believe that these lawsuits haven't created a massive PR problem for the RIAA members yet. And I think it's our responsibility to make sure that they are held responsible for these tactics. To this end, I have designed this advisory label for affected CDs.


If you are as worried about this as I am, consider printing out some of these labels and sticking them to the CDs of RIAA-member artists in your local record store. Of course you should get the permission of the store owner first. If he or she says no, you can stick the stickers to the posters which the labels stick up in public places to promote their recordings.

You can download the labels in printable format here:

Click here to download

Print the labels on adhesive paper and cut it up using a guillotine or scissors, and the crop marks provided.

You can find a list of the labels who are RIAA members here:
http://www.riaa.com/about/members/default.asp

or if that is down:
Google cache