UCLA to RIAA: “Try RFIDing Them First”   - 1,856 Views,

Summary: The Register is reporting today that the Recording Industry Association of America has demonstrated that death should be no obstacle to a good lawsuit. Or a stupid one. According to the report, the RIAA has filed an infringement lawsuit against one Gertrude Walton ...

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The Register is reporting today that the Recording Industry Association of America has demonstrated that death should be no obstacle to a good lawsuit. Or a stupid one.

According to the report, the RIAA has filed an infringement lawsuit against one Gertrude Walton of Beckley, West Virginia, for making hundreds of songs available on the Internet.

One problem: Walton’s daughter, Robin Chianumba, claims that Walton “hated computers”.

Still, that’s not the oddest thing about this lawsuit.

Nor is the fact that on her last birthday, Walton turned 83.

No, the oddest thing about this lawsuit is that Gertrude Walton, may she rest in peace, died in December. And the lawsuit was filed after the RIAA was notified of Walton’s death, claiming that Walton had made available 700 songs on the Internet.

Holy Afterlife, that must have taken a lot of bandwidth! Guess she was using an etherealnet connection.

For their part, the RIAA has said that they will “try to dismiss” the lawsuit. And well they should, as, as Ms. Chianumba explains, “I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park to attend the hearing.”

And while that would otherwise make it an easy win for the RIAA if the defendant didn’t show up, still, they can always go back to suing 12-year-olds.

And for those of you who don’t ‘get’ the title of this post, see Aunty’s report on RFIDing the deceased here.

UCLA to RIAA: “Try RFIDing Them First”

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Previous Article « From Microsoft to Windows Users: A Dozen Long-Stemmed Security Updates
Read Next Article » Write Spamware for College Credit

Read more:

»  RIAA Threatens Colleges and College Students: Pay Us Now or We’ll See You in Court

»  RIAA President Cary Sherman Says Very Clearly “We Are Not Interested in Going After People for Personal Use Copying” - Listen Here

»  Newsflash! Federal Court to RIAA: No, You CAN’T Have that Peer-to-Peer User’s Information!

»  Abra Cadavera - a New Use for RFIDs

For additional similar stories check out our archives on Boneheads, Internet Law, RFID

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 This article first appeared on 2/8/2005
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