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September 24, 2003

The Hippie to the Hip Hip Hop

The RIAA, in its efforts to further annoy music fans everywhere, has ended up looking pretty silly:

The Recording Industry Association of America has withdrawn the first of its file-swapping lawsuits after a possible case of mistaken identity.

The trade association confirmed Wednesday that it had withdrawn its suit against a Boston-area senior citizen named Sarah Ward, who claimed that she could not possibly have been involved in the file-swapping incident attributed to her. Among other objections, Ward is a Macintosh computer user, and there is no Apple version of the Kazaa file-trading software she is supposed to have used, according to attorneys who have spoken to the woman.

Whoopsy.

According to attorneys who have spoken to Ward, she is a sculptor, former early childhood educator, living at home with her husband. Her children and grandchildren do not live with her, and would not have used her account to trade files on a PC, they say.

Nor is Ward likely to have downloaded many of the files allegedly on her computer, such as songs by rapper Busta Rhymes, said Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Cindy Cohn, who helped Ward with her case.

Aw, c'mon now, we've all seen The Wedding Singer. Give the old lady the chair!