We Live In Shark Infested Waters
By Jim E. Reames (12/12/03)
I just read a newspaper article about how the mother of two teenage daughters is being sued in federal court for illegal song-swapping on the Internet. If the plaintiff prevails it will cost the mother up to $150,000 per song, plus legal fees.
This seems to be a growing trend being launched by a market place troubled music industry. According to the article which appeared in the December 7th, 2003 print of “The Star Ledger” newspaper the mother (Michele Scimeca, who resides in New Jersey’s Rockaway Township) is listed as a defendant because it was her Internet provider account that was supposedly used by the teen.
Surely this is another “David and Goliath” story. According to “The Star Ledger” it is just one of 41 similar lawsuits jointly filed (assumedly by the same plaintiff) in 11 different sates [41 songs * $150K each = $6,150,000]. Times two songs it comes up to over $12.3 million.
Yes, the music industry does possess the legal right (even the moral right) to defend its financial investments. No, it is not (in my opinion) right to use such gigantic muscle aimed at individuals who are “scraping by” to make mortgage payments.
Let’s face it, today’s children (and even most adults) hold little connection with copyright laws, in part because for as long as this 58 year old can remember our ministers, or school teachers, even my professors of criminal justice administration at Boise State University thought nothing of throwing the copyrighted pages of someone else’s work down onto a Photostat machine. We’ve all seen it, even committed by corporate CEOs.
So what we are now seeing in the civil courts of America today, regarding this subject, is dirty. It is vicious. It is cowardly. It is selfish. It is wrong! It breaches on the threshold of being labeled extortion. But that has always been the way of predators, where, “…big fish eat little fish.” I hope I did not violate someone’s copyright by using that quote. But to be candid I do not know who to give credit to for it.
I consider such legal action to be a serious public relations blunder on the part of the complainants, Sony, BMG Music, and two other labels. I have never fostered negative thoughts about the Sony Corporation until this day. I had always thought them above this degree of legalistic extortion. I want to know, from the CEO of Sony: How does it feel to have destroyed the Spirit of Christmas for one family living in New Jersey? Savings that were likely intended for Christmas presents will probably be spent on legal fees? What does it feel like to have helped foster distrust and stress between a mother and her two teenage daughters? How dare you!
Here is my take on the subject. America’s record industry, and even the defendants, may be better served if the record industry were to sue in small claims for the retail price of the records, plus some small punitive amount per song, (less than $50) for the damages they claim to have endured. It is an affordable amount for the parents to pay, and a sting in the allowance (or wages) of the teenagers who likely did not even understand the legal complexities of copyright infringement. It would even free up court dockets for more important things, for example, this nation’s continuing fight against unorthodox asymmetric war. America is still at war. Or has the greed of Hollywood’s putrid music industry forgotten that? Shame on you Sony and BMG Music. And also shame on the two other unnamed music labels mentioned in the newspaper article. The next time I see any of your names on any product I’m going to seek an alternative purchase decision. Just the thought of Sony Corporation now, very suddenly, brings a dirty image of greed and of legal extortion to my mind. With one lawsuit you have thrown away millions of dollars of advertisement investment for the sake of corporate image. The board of directors should fire your legal council and maybe even you as CEO. The song does stop at your desk, does it not?
If our court system stands behind the music industry on this, then every minister, every church song director, every school teacher, every lawyer, every judge, every elected official who has ever laid the open pages of a book down onto a Photostat machine to mass produce copyrighted work (without paying the author, publisher, and producer their royalties due) ought to be flogged in public.
I feel so very sorry for you, Michele Scimeda of Rockaway Township, in the State of New Jersey. You are the victim of a shark’s bite. I hope the shark dies.
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