One of the first RIAA music piracy trials hit the courts last week. There will be many many more, no doubt. These guys haven’t had an original thought since the early 1900’s, so you can be sure they will continue to sue their own consumers into oblivion with great gusto.

What’s killing me is: it’s puzzling, insane even, for an evil corporation to have chosen to have this case come to court first. They convicted a single mom, lower income than most, of American Indian descent. Yep, that sounds like a cold blooded, deranged criminal to me. It’s an enormous mistake for the RIAA to make. Of the thousands of lawsuits pending (there are more than 20000 of these things choking up the courts) they let this one get to trial first? Why not get a white middle aged nerd to stand trial first? People would easily believe the guy was a nerdly criminal of epic proportions, with terabytes of stolen files obtained by arcane and secret ways that the regular folks just wouldn’t understand. It plays on stereotypes, sure, but they have slimy marketing guys who do this stuff all day long. It would probably help their public opinion a lot. But instead we have a young single mom who makes no money at all. People just thought the RIAA was evil before, but now they are absolutely positive of it.

In any case (that’s a law pun, har har) they won the suit and the victim owes a humongous corporation $222 000 in damages. Yep, that should take her about 15 years to pay off, if she ever does. She becomes a martyr and a figurehead for the fight against these guys. A fight which the RIAA admits is a losing proposition. A fight that makes the artists they represent absolutely no money. Well done, folks.