RIAA defendant 'has never used a computer'

[Player-X]

RIAA defendant 'has never used a computer'
Lawyers claim client has never used or even turned on a computer in her life
Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 03 Feb 2006
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has issued another 750 writs against people it believes are pirates, including a carer in New York who claims never to have owned a computer.
Home health aide Marie Lindor has asked the Eastern District Court of New York to dismiss the case against her before it even comes to court because she claims to be clueless about computers.
"Ms Lindor has not only never 'downloaded, distributed or made available for distribution' any files, but has never purchased, used or even turned on a computer in her life," her lawyers wrote in a letter to Judge David Trager.
The RIAA remains adamant, however. Cary Sherman, president of the trade body, said: "The illegal downloading of music is just as wrong as shoplifting from a local store. It is against the law, and breaking the law must carry consequences."
Meanwhile Hillary Rosen, former head of the RIAA, and Jay Berman, former boss of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, are preparing to cash in on the boom in digital piracy.
The pair have formed a consultancy to advise on piracy issues called Berman Rosen Global Strategies, with offices in Washington and New York.
"We have a unique combination of knowledge and experience. Over the years we have advised a number of analysts on factors relating to piracy in the entertainment business," said Rosen.
"One thing was always missing: the ability to place a valuation on the costs of piracy on the multiples expected from any financial investment."
The consultancy will be affiliated with lobbyist firm Public Strategies Inc, whose clients include the RIAA, Dell and AMD.

More "music industry blunders" news

[Vanit]

Oh god. The stupidity is hurting my eyes.

[Coolsvilleman]

How did they even get her name if she dosen't own a computer.

[Player-X]

How did they even get her name if she dosen't own a computer.

Darts and a phone book or a random name generator

[Xtreme2damax]

OMG, thats dumb, while I can see protecting investments, Why pick on a woman who knows nothing about computers, Unless she's playing a game, and lied, so she can get the easy way out, instead of facing the consequences.
But if it's true that she's never used a computer, they've got no right in this lawsuit. Sound like to me someone got mad at her, and filed a false piracy report, then the riaa got involved, etc.......

[DB7]

It's possible that someone she knows used a laptop at her house and they traced it to her address that way, isn't it.

I confess to not understanding a single thing about how they trace people over the internet.

[Vanit]

Or they could've bought her a computer, stole it, and then filled it with warez and then put it back before she got home!

Lets not give RIAA the benefit of the extreme doubt here, eh.

[hooloovoo]

DB7 I don't think its possible to trace a computers physical location, at least not accurately enough to find the actual address. Could be wrong.

[General Plot]

For those that don't understand how it's possible, there is a mathematical formula that can be done using a person's IP address to formulate a person's location to longitude and lattitude location, and is quite precise.

[hooloovoo]

What about someone using dial-up ...Different IP everyday, so how could the formula produce the same result?

[General Plot]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

What about someone using dial-up ...Different IP everyday, so how could the formula produce the same result?

Yeah, dynamic IP's are on dial up and alot of broadband connections use dynamic IP's as well. But you'll notic that when your IP changes, it's never by much. So yes, it can still be done.

[hooloovoo]

It never changes by much because its always provided by the ISP and you are always logging on with the same account. Nothing I have looked at even suggests that it might be possible to physically locate someone using their IP. Where exactly is your 'information' coming from?

[General Plot]

Originally Posted by hooloovoo

It never changes by much because its always provided by the ISP and you are always logging on with the same account. Nothing I have looked at even suggests that it might be possible to physically locate someone using their IP. Where exactly is your 'information' coming from?

From basic networking science. I'm CCNE certified (if you don't know what that is, it's Cisco Certified Network Engineer), so I'm not just some noob making guesses. But choose to believe whatever you want to believe.