According to P2P.net; Lorraine Sullivan, the New York student subpoenaed by the RIAA for file sharing, will testify at senator Norm Coleman's investigation into the RIAA nail 'em all campaign.
She learned she was expected to turn up in court from a reporter and it took the RIAA a further seven days before she heard from them officially, she told P2P.net in an exclusive telephone interview, saying she settled out of court for $ 2500.
Before hearing from the RIAA, Sullivan set up a web site appealing for donations and, "to warn people about what could happen to them." Now she's paid the RIAA, "I'd really like to thank everyone for their moral support and for sending me money towards paying off the RIAA," she says. "Thanks a lot. I received $ 600 in donations, I had $ 1500 put away in savings, and I borrowed $ 400 on my credit card for the rest." She's leaving for Washington next Tuesday (September 30) to give evidence before Coleman's Senate Governmental Affairs' permanent subcommittee on investigations. One of the key questions will be: Is the industry being reasonable in its application of the sweeping powers granted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and targeting of potential illegal file-sharers? There's no doubt in Sullivan's mind. "I want to go before congress because I still think the way the RIAA has gone about this whole procedure is just off and I hope my testimony will help to change it. I hope there'll be no one else in the position I was in - that it won't be as easy for the RIAA to go and get information and scare people, which is basically what they did to me. "Like, on Sept 9 or 10, I think it was, I heard about the summons from a reporter and it wasn't until a week later than I actually got it. "And it's huge - the entire catalog of songs, and then about 10 pages of what they're accusing me of. "Then attached is a letter saying, and of course I'm paraphrasing, 'If you'd like to settle, call us'. To me it was either deal with this huge, daunting summons and worry about it for months, or 'Pay us and we'll go away'. "I've done a lot of thinking on this and the most difficult thing is: although I'm not responsible for everything and although I didn't know I was sharing, I was, and there's no getting away from it." She's referring to the fact that she'd installed new p2p software on her computer which then went automatically to a folder which stored downloads. "I didn't know it but this folder was also open to the world," she says on her web site. "It was turned off in the old software. "But," she adds, "People like the grandfather? He had NOTHING to do with it. And the little girl? ......." |
This is taken from an article today on P2P.net that puts the importance of Lorraines testimony into perspective, it also names the rest of 3 panelists that will also testify.
"Since she'll be the only one of the 261 people victimised by the RIAA to appear she will, in effect, represent them all.
And the sole member of Panel 3 is one Jonathan D. Moreno, an MD and director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia.
An MD in charge of biomedical ethics? Neither Coleman nor his beagle explain what he's doing at the hearing, which will be before US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
And representing the entire spectrum of p2p service providers and networks on Panel 2 will be Sharman Networks and its business partner Altnet which is, of course, a content marketing and promo firm with a heavy interest in Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies.
The full list of panelists is:
Panel 1
Mitch Bainwol, RIAA chairman and ceo
Jack Valenti, MPAA president and ceo
Recording Artist (no name)
Mike Negra, president, Mikes Video
Panel 2
Alan Morris, executive director, Sharman Networks
Derek Broes, executive vp, Alnet
Representative of Online Business Selling Records (no name)
Lorriane Sullivan, "Recipient of RIAA Subpoena and Target of RIAA Lawsuit"
Pro-File Trading Recording Artist (no name)
Panel 3
Jonathan D. Moreno, MD, Director, Center for Biomedical Ethics , University of Virginia"
Source: p2pnet.net
