A group representing major record labels has reached a $2,000 (1,783.57 Euro) settlement with the New York mother of a 12-year-old girl, less than a day after the industry sued her and 260 others for illegal song-swapping.
The first settlement was reached yesterday between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Sylvia Torres, mother of Brianna Lahara, an honour student who had illegally offered more than 1,000 copyrighted songs, including Madonna's "Material Girl" and Dido's "Here with Me," on the family's personal computer using the Kazaa file-sharing service.
The RIAA filed the suitsyesterday, taking its battle against online piracy for the first time into the homes of individuals who copy music online.
The suits unleashed an uproar by peer-to-peer proponents as well as a media frenzy, with Lahara's suit in particular being featured in the New York Post and the New York Daily News.
"We understand now that file-sharing the music was illegal," Torres said in a statement yesterday. "You can be sure Brianna won't be doing it any more."
"I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love," said Brianna Lahara.
Until now, the RIAA had aimed its legal guns on Kazaa and other peer-to-peer networks, which the industry blames for declining CD sales. But piracy has persisted.
"As this case illustrates, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers," said Mitch Bainwol, RIAA chairman and chief executive officer.
Under copyright law, defendants could face penalties of up to $150,000 per song, but settlements are likely to be less.
"We're getting a lot of calls today and we expect to reach a lot of settlements," said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president for legal and business affairs at the RIAA.
"We're dealing with it, case by case and we believe we're settling on a fair and equitable basis," he said.
The RIAA has said it plans to file more suits soon.
Those sued had opened up their hard drives to other users, making an average of more than 1,000 copyrighted songs available to others over peer-to-peer networks.
Users who simply copied songs and did not share their own music collections were not targeted, the RIAA said.
Many individuals targeted said they were not aware that they or their kids were engaged in illegal activity.
Scott Bassett, of Redwood City, Calif, said he was shocked to be the subject of a suit. He said his two kids, Scott and Brooke, were not aware they were doing anything wrong.
Critics said the industry will only alienate music fans.
"People are right to be afraid of the RIAA. They don't play fair. They don't play nice and its pretty clear that building a meaningful electronic marketplace is not the highest thing on their agenda," said Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, a new trade group for the file-sharing industry.
And while the lawsuits hit home, it was still hard for many to consider the action illegal.
"As far as I know, if I tell my kids, something is wrong, they don't do it," said Bassett, who is now consulting with lawyers.
"If this is going to be one of the worst things my kids have ever done, I'm going to thank the Lord. They're not doing what I was doing at that age," he said. "I've got two beautiful kids and they've got good morals."