A WOMAN who was grassed up to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) by her ISP is taking the snitches to court.

Dawnell Leadbetter, from somewhere near Seattle, claims her ISP, Comcast, was not authorised to hand over her details to snoops from the RIAA who were seeking victims to stiff with big bills for sharing tunes online.

Leadbetter, a mother (sniff), was contacted by some heavies on behalf of the RIAA, who demanded $4,500 and threatened court action if she didn't hand over the dosh. They said she'd have to fork out far more if she was convicted of infringing copyright legislation.

The heavies, from a debt-collection agency named the Settlement Support Center in Washington DC, had tracked the woman down using information the RIAA had extracted from Comcast.

Leadbetter's lawyer says Comcast had no court authorisation to dish the dirt on her to a third party. "Comcast should respect the rights of privacy who pay them monthly bills," lawyer Lory Lybeck asserted.

Comcast is keeping schtumm on the move, while it seeks legal counsel.

From Do Come in

~Fluffy~

"Comcast is keeping schtumm on the move"

...yeah, no sh*t they are keeping quiet.

I hope this brave woman raises enough hell to bring a lot of attention to the fact that Comcast has been playing footsie with the RIAA/MPAA. ISP's need to be shamed into making pro customer decisions from time to time or risk being dropped for a competitor.

GIVE EM HELL DAWNELL!

"who demanded $4,500 and threatened court action if she didn't hand over the dosh. "


*cough*extortion *cough*

"grassing her up"?

I'm so not with it anymore.

"The heavies, from a debt-collection agency"

Debt collectors?! What the Hell are debt collectors doing with her info if she's never even been contacted by a lawyer or served papers? Has the RIAA decided to blow off the courts entirely, now, or does Washington just have Very Strange rules for Debt Collection?

you know Shmoo..."grassing her up"...don't you know what that is?
Get with the in crowd bro...
other new sayings include...

"throwing open the cables..."
"sharpening the old mower blade" (euphemism for sex)...and the ever popular...
"I'm mowing uphill and my mower just ran out of gas" (indication for Viagra)

Here is a prime example of why you boycott. If the tactics suit the RIAA has no compuction about using them. Unforetunately, once the data is out it can't be retrieved. They expect you to live within the law and obey the law. If they can get around it they don't have any restraints to using such illegally. Both the RIAA and Comcast need to be taken to task for such uses. Were it I, Comcast would be looking to fill a new hole where one customer used to be. Or is Comcast indirectly owned by the majors?

I don't know who that Inquirer site is. It's UK.

The earlier Reuters article says "The company, Settlement Support Center, based in Washington state, was using information that the Recording Industry of Association of America had obtained in a Philadelphia lawsuit over the illegal sharing of digital music files, said Lory Lybeck, the lawyer representing Leadbetter."

"...or does Washington just have Very Strange rules for Debt Collection?"

Credit card corporations and check-loan companies apparently had a big wind-fall yesterday.

Might want to take a look at the modifications that just passed in their favor up on the Hill in regard to that telsien.

**drops into Cameron Frye voice**

"Dawnell Leadbetter you're my hero"

___________________

"*cough*extortion *cough*"

BINGO!!! If someone called me up and demanded "money or else" I'd call the feds and file charges, then sue the hell out of them.

____________________

I'm with gdZiemann... "grassed up", "the dosh" What language is this????

"keeping schtumm on the move,"...this one stumped even me!

What I meant was, IF this is the first thing this woman heard about a potential lawsuit against her personally, (which according to the article Tom quoted, it may or may not have been) there was no settlement, and no prior bill to collect on.

Unless she's from an earlier run of individual suits, and hadn't been paying on the $4,500 she agreed to for whatever reason, how did her name end up with these people before she was contacted by an actual lawyer? Is this a Debt Collection-Law firm?

And I have been following the credit card/bankruptcy thing in congress. Court-ordered payments for credit cards, medical, and Gods know what other nonsense. Not a single one of the protective measures adopted. As far as I can tell, nothing about reigning in the outrageous interest or absurd spending limits. Funny no one in the major media seems to think it newsworthy at the moment...

The words are UK slang. This sounds like some good lawyering by Lybeck. I guess she read Comcast's privacy policy and found that they violated it by turning over the data. Nice.

Um, that next to last sentence should read:

"absurd spending limits the credit card companies offer."

(sheepish)

one of the "little people vs. RIAA" suits is finally solid enough to get mroop's approval.

What the hell are you talking about? Since when did I ever say that anything about a "little people vs. RIAA" suit? Has there ever even been one reported here?