Singer Sues EBay CD Seller In Small Claims Court
from the get-over-it dept
Well, if the RIAA won't fight your battles for you... Singer Sophie B. Hawkins was upset to find out that someone was selling her latest album (before it was released) on eBay and took the matter into her own hands, suing the seller in small claims court. She won by default, after the seller didn't bother to show up. Of course, most musicians would be excited to know that there was so much demand for her album that people were even willing to pay a lot of money (bids were at $300 apparently) for her album before it came out. Those certainly sound like dedicated fans. There are plenty of creative ways to deal with such things that would have probably made everyone happy (such as the way Wilco dealt with a similar situation) - but instead she decided to go with lawsuits.
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Lawsuit was the right way
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Anyway, Mike, you've missed the boat on this one. The problem with this is not that he was sharing the song, but the fact that he was profiting off it. I say she has every right to sue this pirate, though since he didn't show, it will probably mean she will have to drag the case back into court to collect.
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Mike,
As you regularly state, this has just givin this performer MORE publicity and should help the sale of CD's.
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It almost sounds like a set up.
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I thought you'd give her more indie credo than that: god knows if *I* catch someone selling my sh*t on eBay, i'm gonna git you sucka!
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