Nettwerk, a giant Canadian music-management company, has agreed to cover the costs of defending a 15-year-old accused file-sharer in a lawsuit brought by the RIAA. The CEO of Nettwerk announced that his company would defend the girl when she was sued for allegedly infringing the copyrights of Nettwerk client Avril Lavigne by sharing the song Sk8r Boi. Check out the quotes from Nettwerk — they're just brilliant. "Litigation is not 'artist development'." Love it!
Nettwerk became involved in the battle against the RIAA after 15-year-old Elisa Greubel contacted MC Lars, also a Nettwerk management client, to say that she identified with "Download This Song," a track from the artist's latest release. In an e-mail to the artist's web-site, she wrote, "My family is one of many seemingly randomly chosen families to be sued by the RIAA. No fun. You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions. The line 'they sue little kids downloading hit songs,' basically sums a lot of the whole thing up. I'm not saying it is right to download but the whole lawsuit business is a tad bit outrageous…"
Nettwerk Music Group has agreed to pay the total expense of all legal fees as well as any fines should the family lose the case against the RIAA.
"Litigation is not 'artist development.' Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love," insists McBride. "The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests."
(Thanks, Shaun!)
