NEWS: Music Industry Sues 83-Year-Old Dead Woman

The RIAA has filed suit for file sharing against a 83 year old woman. The problem with the suit is that Gertrude Walton is deceased. The suit was filed one month after she had died of a long illness. To make the embarrassment worse, Walton did not even own a computer.



The RIAA and the record industry is going thorough its death throes. Its only a matter of time will thier business model is done for. The frivolous and possible unconstitutional suits they have been filing (there has yet to be a major test) are getting out of control. Last year the tried to sue a 7 year old and now dead people?

Its only a matter of time will thier business model is done for.

100% agreed. Something needs to be done. The tolerance for stupidity like this is over and done with. I care not at all for issues like this when our nation allows barely matured adults to die in a war that is ultimately meaningless............

They deserve to die, how long have they been charging insane amounts of money for albums on which only one or two songs are any good?

They deserve to die,

I'm not sure if I'd take it to that extreme
However this lawsuit is Moronic beyond belief!!!

The music industry is shooting themselves in the foot. America is materialistic. We want the original copy of the original album. My cousins all download music. Most of the CDs they have bought is becuase thy downloaded the music first, learned to love it, then bought a label copy. I do the same. We do the same for TV shows, Movies, anything, really. I never did like the reasoning that corporations have used about this.

There should be a law where the music companies have to pay penalties to the victims if the law suit they file is not valid. This story shows the music industry is careless in their lawsuits and if one is obviously wrongful, they just say oh, we'll dismiss it.

The music industry have to understand that every body wants original material and apparently they do not get it, for example if I bought a CD for 2.50 (and that is very reasonable price and they are making like 300% of profits) than for some reason the cd get damage, I’ll be happy to buy another original cd with that price and I think every one else will.
Not only would they finish with the piracy, but they will sell millions more of copies, but I think the greed they have and thinking that they can continue ripping peoples money would last , they are wrong.
They are doom with their actual business model.


[edit on 6-2-2005 by Spain]

My dad predicted this 12 years ago. He didn't know that MP3s or internet were going to be the big thing, but he was convinced that nobody would keep paying outrageous prices for music, and that corporate sponsorship was the future. The only problem with that is that it involves corporate sponsorship.

Sooner or later, hard media is gone. No more buying CDs. Downloads are the future. They need to be cheap or subscription based and there need to be freebies or discounts in exchange for proof of purchase for popular products. This shifts a lot of the funding over to advertising and takes out a lot of the overhead.
Profits will almost certainly shrink and the bands will feel the pinch. Their endorsement income will be shared heavily with their labels under contract terms and they will probably be pressed into frequent concerts.
Fans can expect merchandise to get a little more expensive.

Long story short, if you are passionate about music there's a good chance this is really going to suck when the backlash comes. For the most part right now an artist pays a tax on his soul. When the RIAA discovers a way to crush this revolution the artists will flat out have to sell their souls.

When this is over "Something Corporate" will not be a joke, and Eminem will have to chance his name to M&M.

Originally posted by Spain
for example if I bought a CD for 2.50 (and that is very reasonable price and they are making like 300% of profits)
[edit on 6-2-2005 by Spain]

That just about sums up whats wrong with the RIAA alright. Talk about an eye opener when I first discovered that they were selling promo CDs in high volume for 3 bucks! So why the hell does a new album (even a really bad one) cost almost 6 times that, or 8 times that if it's a good one!?

You can get a CD made for yourself professionally, including burning the CD, putting artwork on the CD, putting artwork on the sleeve - basically the whole package, for $1.79. That's the price for the average Joe on the street.

Now, think how much it costs record labels to mass produce millions of CD's...they're probably paying 50 cents (if that) to produce a CD.

Then they go out and sell it for the average price of $16.00. That's about a 3000% return on investment.

These lawsuits are nothing more than a last ditch effort to keep their "middle man" status alive.

Don't even get me started on how the "bands" of today are prepackaged marketing hype. Hell, they don't even play instruments. And, 90% of them lip sync....Ashlee Simpson isn't the only one.

That'll learn her!

Originally posted by elderban
Don't even get me started on how the "bands" of today are prepackaged marketing hype. Hell, they don't even play instruments. And, 90% of them lip sync....Ashlee Simpson isn't the only one.

Funny, I'd forgotten that aspect. I remember reading an article in Maxim where they went out of their way to mention that Michelle Branch can actually play an instrument. You'd think that would be a given... she -is- a musician!
(she also has a thing for pirates, so i walk around acting like the guy from Dodgeball just in case I should happen to meet Michelle Branch. it's amazing what you can learn from a cheap chauvanist's magazine.)

Most of the CDs they have bought is becuase thy downloaded the music first,

You know...you make a very good point! There's about 20 CD's that I
have here at home that I have bought, purley because I downloaded
a couple of songs from kazza!
Otherwise I would never have spent the money.

After Napster came out, I never bought mainstream label CDs again. I've always downloaded them through P2P's. Althought, I've bought some local and club music cds and they all were compilations during those times. I wish the RIAA would go away fast. RIAA is just another corporation in it for the greed.

Instead of trying to go out and bust people for downloading the samrt thing that these companies could do is start selling the CD's on the net. First of buy a subscription to the site then purchase the music.

Eventually, like I heard in an interview with Jon Bon Jovi, that the net will be the new era for music. To battle it is only delaying the enevitable (sp). The companies will loose with time. And if they keep going after people fro ridiculous BS like the 7yr old and deceased, there will be no more companies...and if bands wants to sell CD's start selling them on their website. Make money not haste.

is just another corporation in it for the greed.

I agree with you to an extent, however Artists need to be paid,
my point is that without P2P music sharing, I'm thinking that there
is a lot of Artists that may have not made it into the mainstream,
without the odd file share.
Also a lot of mainstream artists that may have never been heard of by a
younger generation had their sales increased due to file sharing as well.

I agree but then I also disagree,the actual writers and musicians gets very little of the money and if someone is putting their music out there for free then they are not being paid for their music. I think a songwriter only gets something like 2-6% depending on whether he is his own publisher or not, the publishing company gets some of that 6% if they publish the music. The music business is a hard tough business and only a few make it rich, my sympathy lies with the musicians not the record companies though. What I worry about is someone using my computer remotely to download and get the music and then take it off my computer without my knowledge, thus making me the one they come after. Is there any way to set your computer up to where that can't happen?

I can only suggest that you have a good firewall, antivirus, get yourself
some good anti spyware software....
Ad Aware

SpyBot Search and Destroy

A good software Firewall should log all hijacking attempts as well.

[edit on 7-2-2005 by madhatter]

The RIAA and there Gestapo type tactics. Soon the recording industry will realize that there are more important things to 'wage a war on' such as spending the money that it takes to sue a 7 year old and apply it to the War on Aids in Africa, helping the Tsunami victims in Asia or they could take a note out from Bushes book and fight the War on Terrorism

Something similar was thought of being done with the Magazine industry....
Most Magazines offer Online subscriptions.

I haven't seen the webpage in ages, but there's a machine out there that puts whole magazines on a disc, fo r a fraction of the price, and it burns it right there, for the subscriber......a friend was even thinking of buying the machines and placing them in our Student Union, lol....