Downloading? Pay up, or we’ll send your mum to jail

An interesting, and increasingly-common story.Teenager uses internet to download songs onto home computer. Lawyers acting on behalf of the music business send Mum a letter that says "Pay us £4000 (about $7500) or go to jail". Mum says "I can't afford to pay, so I guess I'm going to jail".

Who made the music business Judge, Jury and Executioner? Surely this should be pursued through the civil courts. If it's theft, treat it as theft, and not as an excuse for what looks suspiciously like extortion.

A 14-year-old is old enough to be accountable for their actions. So why is the mother being bought into this? Probably because the lawyers are only interested in people who have money in their pockets.The penalty is, as usual, unrealistically high. 1400 songs is about $1300 (£700) worth of iTunes. However, that presupposes that the teenager would have bought all of the songs if they could not download them… which is a stretch at best.

• Not every download is copyright violation.
• Not every Copyright violation is a loss of a sale. If someone downloads, listens, likes and buys the product, has a crime been committed?
• If Mum goes to jail, who foots the bill? That's right, the taxpayer… and the music business and their lawyers get a free ride at their expense.
• What's wrong with this picture? Hint: The letters D, M, C and A.

While I support the idea of parental responsibility, I also believe that is not right to punish parents for situations which the child is old enough to be responsible. Extreme example: If a teenager steals money, buys a gun and shoots someone, should the parent go to jail? No. It is also true that a 14-year-old is not old enough to enter into a legally-binding contract.

This is a simple case of the lawyers asking "Show me the money". Once again, the Music business has failed to realize the saddest aspect of the whole debate; that what you sell is entertainment, not art – and much of it is pabulum; elevator music that the rest of the world has already valued at £0.00 ($0.00).

The shrill cry of "Downloading is Stealing!" is not only untrue, but is considered as a joke almost everyone outside of the music business.

And last but not least; screaming "STOP THEM!!!" and suing your future customers is NOT a great way to win friends and influence people.