WILL BUSH BE PUSHING FOR RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FOR RECORD COMPANY EXECUTIVES NEXT?

Not likely, though a gaggle of them are being sued... for warrantless spying on American citizens. But for their own benefit, not the GOP's. Racketeering, fraud, illegal spying... sounds just like the Music Biz. Oh, wait... not the illegal spying. What's that all about? Well, it's what it's all about. An A.P. story yesterday by Bill McCall reports that a pissed off mother in Oregon believes the Music Business' anti-file sharing campaign has gone way too far over the bounds.

Tanya Andersen originally sued the Recording Industry Association of America after RIAA representatives threatened to interrogate her young daughter if she didn't pay thousands of dollars for music she downloaded from somebody else.

Her amended complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland seeks national class-action status for other people allegedly victimized by the industry's anti-piracy campaign and the company it hired, MediaSentry.

The new lawsuit accuses the industry and MediaSentry of spying "by unlicensed, unregistered and uncertified private investigators" who "have illegally entered the hard drives of tens of thousands of private American citizens" in violation of laws "in virtually every state in the country."

The information was used to file "sham" lawsuits intended only as intimidation to further the anti-piracy campaign, the lawsuit said.

Lory Lybeck, attorney for the plaintiff, said the suit is partly aimed at forcing the industry to reveal how extensive the spying had become.

"We're very pleased that we'll finally be able to force the RIAA and MediaSentry to give up secret records they have steadfastly refused to disclose in tens of thousands of cases that they've filed," Lybeck said.

Personally I knew it would come to this once the Music Business surrendered to Tom DeLay's demands that they can the Democrats who worked there and stock the RIAA with Republicans. Ms. Andersen's daughter is 8 years old, so you know there are Republicans behind the attempt to ruin her life. Their monstrous lawsuit was dismissed, of course, and Andersen countersued, a suite "similar to one filed in federal court against the industry by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers on behalf of the University of Oregon to protect the privacy of university students the RIAA has accused of music piracy."

There isn't much sympathy for the floundering music industry, nor should there be. The RIAA tries to paint itself as the representative of the entire industry when, in fact, they represent the interests of a small handful of senior executives at the major corporate conglomerates. In many, if not most, cases they are pushing an agenda that is harmful for artists and consumers. In fact, the corporate conglomerates barely have any consumers left, largely because of RIAA policies and practices. Today the Consumerist pointed out that "none of the estimated $400 million that the RIAA received in settlements with Napster, KaZaA, and Bolt over allegations of copyright infringement has gone to the artists whose copyrights were allegedly infringed." Now that sounds like the Music Business, much more than that spying stuff. And last month the NY Post reported that many of the major artists are getting ready to sue the RIAA themselves, who are regularly defrauded. There's an old saying in the music business. No artist has ever, in the entire history of the music business, not come out ahead by forcing an audit.