RIAA "feeling pretty good" about suing kids and old people

Filed in archive People , RIAA, IFPI on June 7, 2006

CNET Puff piece Newsmaker: RIAA's next moves in Washington throws softball questions at RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwold and President Cary Sherman. The two earn almost $2 million together and appear to flub a simple interview.

Two examples:

"Do your view your lawsuits, even ones where you sued a 12-year-old girl or a Boston grandmother, as a success overall and do you think the process is working?
Sherman: Yes. We're feeling pretty good."

Through extrapolation they must be delirious with suits against dead people.

"Could the DRM debate flare up again because of public missteps like Sony's rootkit-enabled CDs?
Sherman: DRM has just gotten a bad rap based on this notion that it's going to restrict consumer choice."

A "bad rap"? Sherman needs to pay attention to reality and RIAA's own filings. The definition of DRM is a system that specifically restricts how consumers can use the covered files. RIAA itself has said that DRM could "Threaten Critical Infrastructure and Potentially Endanger Lives". The Sony rootkit fiasco was spyware plain and simple. It invaded consumer computers, damaged files, opened the computer to viruses, could not be removed, communicated to other computers on the Internet, and had the music company colluding with computer security vendors to prevent timely action to detect and remove it.