WTF?! The RIAA getting away with these gestapo tactics is fucking ridiculous..Sometimes, you see an instance of overreach on the part of Big Content that just takes your breath away. For instance, Orrin Hatch's asinine call to permit the RIAA and MPAA to hack into and destroy the computers of suspected infringers boggled my mind. Still, Big Content's latest stunt reaches new lows.
According to this Reuters story, Comcast turned over the names and addresses of some of its customers to the RIAA, without being required to do so by a court order and without notifying the customers. The RIAA then took the information for at least one woman and submitted it to a debt collection agency, which then contacted the woman and demanded $4,500 compensation for her alleged illegal downloads of music and threatened the woman with a lawsuit if she didn't comply.
This is just unbelievable. It's basically old-fashioned extortion, done right out in the open and with the cooperation of a broadband service provider. They obtained this woman's personal data without her consent, and then hired a third party to extort money out of her by threatening her with a costly lawsuit. The woman in question has filed a lawsuit of her own, and I hope to God she wins big. (Perhaps the EFF could get involved? It would be yet another reason to donate.) Still, I'd love to see some kind of criminal prosecution against the parties responsible in this case. Extortion of any kind should be against the law, even when—or especially when—it's carried out in the name of enforcing the law. But does anyone really expect the RIAA to be punished for extortion, or Comcast to be punished for abetting it, when they have so many lawmakers in their pocket that they write their own legislation?
The RIAA's new job... extortion
The RIAA's new job... extortion
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