News

Among the RIAA's latest targets in its campaign to sue its customer base into submission is a 19 year old cancer patient. Ciaro Sauro was ruled a music pirate after failing to defend herself in against charges from the RIAA that she was sharing music files online. Ms. Sauro has said she couldn't defend herself as she is hospitalized once a week, and vehemently denies the allegations that she is a pirate.

"Look and see where it (the downloads) came from, and look and see that it's not me. It's not fair to do to me," Ms. Sauro told WTAE TV in Pittsburgh, who brought the story to light. "I already have severe depression. I mean, it's so hard to sit there and think that I have to get in trouble for something that I didn't do. It's not fair."

In addition to the Big Four music labels, Ms. Sauro is also battling Pancreatitis, and is in need of an islet cell transplant. According to WTAE, she is hospitalized weekly, and she and her mother insist that it is Ms. Ciaro's father, who no longer lives with the family, who opened the account and committed the piracy.

The RIAA has been conducting a campaign against people it claims are pirates for many years, garnering a wealth of bad press that has sometimes resulted in the recording trade organization backing off of specific cases. That may be what attorney James Brink hopes will happen in this case, as he has volunteered to defend Ms. Sauro, and has asked the courts to reopen her case.

As it stands, this case is sweeping through the tech-oriented online media, and appears to be picking up steam.