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Singer Sues EBay CD Seller In Small Claims Court
from the get-over-it dept
Well, if the RIAA won't fight your battles for you... Singer Sophie B. Hawkins was upset to find out that someone was selling her latest album (before it was released) on eBay and took the matter into her own hands, suing the seller in small claims court. She won by default, after the seller didn't bother to show up. Of course, most musicians would be excited to know that there was so much demand for her album that people were even willing to pay a lot of money (bids were at $300 apparently) for her album before it came out. Those certainly sound like dedicated fans. There are plenty of creative ways to deal with such things that would have probably made everyone happy (such as the way Wilco dealt with a similar situation) - but instead she decided to go with lawsuits.
Reader Comments
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Lawsuit was the right way
It was a pirate. Down with him.
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Well Mike, This is America, land of the litigeous. Sure there were better ways to deal with this problem. But the fact of the matter is that the RIAA has these people programmed into thinking that law suits are the only way to solve problems. I don't fault the artist in this case, although I doubt the artist is actually the copyright holder in this case. I fault the culture that has been evolving over the last couple of years.
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Small Claims Court ???? She was being very very kind to this individual. Depending on what state she's suing in, it probably carries a maxium fine of 5k. Had she taking him to criminal court, the lawyer fees along would probably bankrupt the individual.
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Well, you can't sue someone in criminal court - that's for criminal cases. She could have taken him to what in Indiana is called superior court - civil cases, but can go above small claims judgments.
Anyway, Mike, you've missed the boat on this one. The problem with this is not that he was sharing the song, but the fact that he was profiting off it. I say she has every right to sue this pirate, though since he didn't show, it will probably mean she will have to drag the case back into court to collect.
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I understand that the guy was profiting off of it. I just think there were better ways to handle this.
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Mike,
As you regularly state, this has just givin this performer MORE publicity and should help the sale of CD's.
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You're right.
It almost sounds like a set up.
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Damn, I wish I was her lover.
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Mike: part of Sophie's issue was that the eBay seller was selling incomplete pirates of her work - some of the buyers didn't get artwork, for instance. She did double duty by shutting down not only a pirate of her work, but a con-man as well.
I thought you'd give her more indie credo than that: god knows if *I* catch someone selling my sh*t on eBay, i'm gonna git you sucka!
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