Since 2003, record companies have reached into the pool of 7.8 million Americans who illegally download music and hit 30,000 of them with civil lawsuits for copyright theft. Among the most recent is 35-year-old Chelsea Webster of Irving, who was served with a copyright infringement complaint in late July. Webster’s alleged downloads have us wondering why she bothered. The songs she is accused of pinching are such common radio fare that a lot of people would probably risk doing something illegal never to have to suffer them again. Example? Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird,” which is in its 35th year of gross overexposure. Also on Webster’s playlist: Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” and “Hero”; Faith Hill’s “Breathe” and “One”; Destiny Child’s “Brown Eyes”; and Nelly’s “Country Grammar.”
Liz Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, says it is easy to identify the Internet addresses of people (like Webster) using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as Gnutella. From there, the recording companies must go to court to force Internet service providers to cooperate. “At that stage, when we have a name, most people settle with us,” Kennedy says, adding that defendants typically settle for damages in the range of $3,000 to $5,000. Webster, who in late August had not formally answered the lawsuit, did not respond to notes left on her door seeking comment.
