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Mother counter-sues labels for racketeering

We told 'ya it was bound to happen (12/5/03 RBR Daily Epaper #237): As the RIAA continues its campaign of lawsuits against alleged music file sharers, one of a handful has decided to fight back, via a countersuit. This one may have some teeth.

After her child used Kazaa for a school project, Michele Scimeca of New Jersey received the usual letter from the RIAA. So she sued Sony, Universal and Motown, claiming the demands that she pay up to $150K per incident violates RICO statutes. RICO means racketeering, an acronym for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute/1970 Organized Crime and Control Act.

Scimeca's attorney Bart Lombardo says the RIAA is strong-arming everyone from children to the elderly, with little proof to go on: "They're banding together to extort money, telling people they're guilty and they will have to pay big bucks to defend their cases if they don't pony up now. It is fundamentally not fair...This scare tactic has caused a vast amount of settlements from individuals who feared fighting such a large institution and feel victim to these actions and felt forced to provide funds to settle these actions instead of fighting. These types of scare tactics are not permissible and amount to extortion."

The RIAA just filed 531 more "John Doe" suits this week and is still seeking to get names of individuals from ISPs (2/19/03 RBR Daily Epaper #34).