Mechanic
January 29th, 2004, 11:11 AM
The Recording Industry Association of America announced today it would be
expanding its crackdown on copyright infringement by suing family members,
hitchhikers and carpoolers.Lawyers for the RIAA maintain that the radio in
each car was never meant
to be listened to by anyone else except the original owner of the vehicle.
Therefore, any additional passengers who listen to music on the radio in
another individual's car are doing so illegally and without the express
permission of the copyright holders of the respective songs that are
broadcast.
RIAA attorneys were preparing to go to Federal District courts across the
country to have subpoenas issued to every car maker in America in the
hopes of forcing them to disclose the names and addresses of all
purchasers from the last 20 years.
"We think this is a no brainer," said an RIAA spokesperson who declined to
be identified. "These drivers have been illegally sharing music on their
radios and their passengers have been getting a free ride for way too
long," he continued.
Legal representatives for the RIAA also warned that they would especially
be targeting the "big fish" like charter bus drivers and RV owners who
blatantly turn up the radio volume allowing others to hear.
In addition, RIAA lawyers said they were hoping to get a court order to
exhume the bodies of Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell, who developed
the theory of electromagnetic waves and Guglielmo Marconi, who discovered
and harnessed wireless radio in order to sue both corpses for unfair
business practices.
expanding its crackdown on copyright infringement by suing family members,
hitchhikers and carpoolers.Lawyers for the RIAA maintain that the radio in
each car was never meant
to be listened to by anyone else except the original owner of the vehicle.
Therefore, any additional passengers who listen to music on the radio in
another individual's car are doing so illegally and without the express
permission of the copyright holders of the respective songs that are
broadcast.
RIAA attorneys were preparing to go to Federal District courts across the
country to have subpoenas issued to every car maker in America in the
hopes of forcing them to disclose the names and addresses of all
purchasers from the last 20 years.
"We think this is a no brainer," said an RIAA spokesperson who declined to
be identified. "These drivers have been illegally sharing music on their
radios and their passengers have been getting a free ride for way too
long," he continued.
Legal representatives for the RIAA also warned that they would especially
be targeting the "big fish" like charter bus drivers and RV owners who
blatantly turn up the radio volume allowing others to hear.
In addition, RIAA lawyers said they were hoping to get a court order to
exhume the bodies of Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell, who developed
the theory of electromagnetic waves and Guglielmo Marconi, who discovered
and harnessed wireless radio in order to sue both corpses for unfair
business practices.