A suit filed recently in US District Court named 83-year-old Gertrude Walton as a defendant, accusing her of serving up over 700 songs onto peer-to-peer networks. Now, the RIAA has gone after grandmothers before. In 2003, they mistakenly targeted a 66-year-old woman for allegedly sharing gangsta rap. But this case goes a bit further, as Mrs. Walton actually passed away in December 2004.

However, when Chianumba received such a letter from the trade group, she sent back a copy of her mother's death certificate in hopes of dissuading them from going ahead with the suit. The RIAA didn't heed the death certification, but it has apparently been convinced to its satisfaction that Mrs. Walton has passed beyond the earthly veil.

A Recording Industry Association of America spokesman said Thursday that Walton was likely not the smittenedkitten it's searching for.

One would hope that they would be more diligent in ensuring that they have targeted the right people. Unfortunately, their history does little to inspire such hopes.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued a family for sharing files over the Internet. But the family doesn't have a PC, never mind Internet access.

The Rockmart Journal said James Walls was shocked by the court filing.

Nevertheless, according to a lawsuit filed by the RIAA, a member of the family has infringed on the copyright of a number of toons including "Who will Save your Soul" and "I won't forget you".

When not producing reports about the state of software piracy in China, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) produces reports about the state of software piracy among children. Their newest report is interesting because it claims that children (ages 8 to 18) are now downloading significantly less music, movies, and software than they were only two years ago.

As with many BSA statistics, it's not clear that these are truly representative of the total situation. A recent report from research firm Big Champagne, for instance, found that P2P usage has doubled in the last two years, not declined. As even the BSA admits, as kids grow older, they download much more material.

If you'd like to see what your kids might be receiving, you can check out Garret's copyright adventures in this brief comic that shows kids just how "uncool" copyright violations are.

On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall's general elections.

LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy?

Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn't listen to their voters, but to yesterday's industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters).

LinuxP2P: What are your main goals?

Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere.

MPAA owners Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney are in essence trying to outlaw the dot torrent file format, says a lawyer representing TorrentSpy.com, one of the sites named in the MPAA's panicky onslaught against file sharers in particular, and the p2p community in general.´

"Apparently, Hollywood is now using the Grokster opinion to sue search engines that do not even link to their copyrighted files," Ira Rothken tells p2pnet.

It will among other things argue it doesn't not link to copyrighted works; that it's cooperated by removing "objectionable links to dot torrent files;" that it doesn't actively promote copyright infringment,; and, it can't be held "tertiary" liable for visitors' conduct that occurs away from its web search engine, says Rothken.

Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America announced one of its boldest sorties yet against online piracy: a barrage of seven federal lawsuits against some of the highest-profile BitTorrent sites, Usenet hosts and peer-to-peer services. Among the targets: isoHunt, TorrentSpy and eDonkey.

But, as always, one prominent site is missing from the movie industry's announcement (.pdf), and it happens to be the simplest and best-known source of traded movies -- along with pirated video games, music, software, audio books, television broadcasts and nearly any other form of media imaginable. The site is called The Pirate Bay, and it's operated by a crew of intrepid Swedes who revel in tormenting the content industries.

To international observers, The Pirate Bay's defiant immunity from copyright lawyers is somewhat baffling. But in Sweden, the site is more than just an electronic speak-easy: It's the flagship of a national file-sharing movement that's generating an intense national debate, and has even spawned a pro-piracy political party making a credible bid for seats in the Swedish parliament.

Viborg said that no one has successfully indicted The Pirate Bay or sued its operators in Swedish courts. Attorneys for DreamWorks and Warner Bros., two companies among those that have issued take-down demands to the site, did not return calls for comment.

The site's Stockholm-based servers provide only torrent files, which by themselves contain no copyright data -- merely pointers to sources of the content. That makes The Pirate Bay's activities perfectly legal under Swedish statutory and case law, Viborg claims.

MPAA spokeswoman Kori Bernards insists The Pirate Bay violates copyright laws around the world. "Copyright laws are being enforced and upheld in countries all over the world and when you facilitate the illegal file swapping of millions of people around the world, you are subject to those laws," said Bernards.

Antipiratbyrån's efforts to halt file sharing have prompted Sweden's outspoken pirates to run for office as the Pirate Party.

It may sound like a joke, but Sjöman said the Pirate Party has 1,500 members, and has gathered enough signatures to participate in the Swedish general election in September. He said the government estimates that there are 1.2 million file sharers over the age of 18 in Sweden, and the Pirate Party needs only four percent, 225,000 votes, to get seats in the country's parliament.

If elected, the Pirate Party promises to strengthen Swedish privacy protections, weaken copyright laws, abolish the EU Data Retention Directive and roll back government surveillance legislation, said Sjöman. The party plans to hold its first convention in April, aboard a pirate ship.

In a move that shows Hollywood is examining the benefits of a technology it long reviled, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. is expected to announce today that it will sell movies and television shows online in Germany using peer-to-peer technology.

Users, who will have to register for the service, will be able to keep the movie indefinitely. But instead of getting a movie from a central server, pieces of it could come from other people on the network who also bought that movie.

The Arvato architecture is similar to that used by peer-to-peer systems like BitTorrent, a technology that enables millions of people to share copyrighted movies and other material online without paying for them.

Global court action against music file-sharers has not reduced illegal downloading, an industry report says.

The level of file-sharing has remained the same for two years despite 20,000 legal cases in 17 countries.

Music piracy could be "dramatically reduced within a very short period of time" if ISPs took action against their law-breaking customers, Mr Kennedy said.

And Mr Kennedy backed the continuing use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, which controls what consumers can do with their music once it has been purchased - either online or on CD.

Mr Kennedy, writing in the report, said DRM "helps get music to consumers in new and flexible ways".

A group of students at the Viktoria Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden, has worked out a system of P2P music listening and sharing that will make the head of the RIAA wake up in the night in a cold sweat.

The students have developed something they call Push!Music. This is a mobile, peer-to-peer music listening and sharing application.

It runs on WiFi-enabled PDAs and allows users to actively recommend songs by pushing music to other users in the proximity.

You might be walking down the street and a complete stranger, who happens to have the same music taste as you stored on his PDA, might send you some tracks that his machine knows you are missing.

Meanwhile you would be opening your entire music collection to everyone within wi-fi range to borrow.

Coldplay's latest CD provides what may be one of the best tools to use against the onslaught of anti-consumer digital rights management technology. Their most recent album, X & Y, now comes in some regions with an insert that warns users not to expect the CD they just purchased to work with just any old CD player (the following exemplar is from India). Stating that "This CD cannot be burnt onto a CD-R or hard disk, nor can it be converted into MP3 for file sharing," the insert goes on to list 12 bullet-pointed exceptions to what devices can actually play the disc.

You might find this notification honest and perhaps even useful. Think again. Not only is the insert on the inside of the CD jewel case, where you can't see it until you've paid for the disc and cracked it open, but the insert kindly informs you that you can't return the merchandise.

By now you may be wondering how this could be used as a tool against the onslaught of DRM. It's simple: copy this warning text, or get your hands on the actual insert, and mail it to everyone that represents you in government. This is a fantastic example of what industry players will do if they can get away with it. And the best part of it all? This copy protection is a complete waste of time; the album is available all over P2P networks, without DRM. Once again, the industry decides that punishing its paying customers is the best way to go. And one user who ended up with the CD found out that he could rip it anyway.