Capitol Records was rebutted attempting to shake down another alleged pirate when it was discovered that it was not the plaintiff responsible, but another individual who had access to her account.  The case was dismissed, and Capitol ordered to pay court fees, but the Recording Industry Association of America never sleeps, and they have filed a motion to reconsider, based on the grounds that any internet service provider is completely responsible for all activity on their network.

The implication here is that any individual who allows open access to their WiFi network is legally liable for any illicit activity that occurs over their bandwidth – and can be considered complacent if they are aware of the activity, when ‘awareness’ can be defined as vaguely as experiencing network slowdowns.

Clearly the RIAA members are flexing any legal muscle they can to control what’s left of their industry after missing the opportunity to effectively regulate digital music distribution, even using terrorist tactics of attacking apparently at random, targeting children and families, and now reigning fear over the public at large by implicating open access to internet.

But we’re not going to play the victim, and our pals over at Gizmodo are participating in organizing an RIAA boycott for the month of March. We’re not worried: we vote with our consumer dollars!

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