Record label goes after grandma for illegal music downloads

Clearwater, Florida - Ellen Saylor knows her way around a kitchen, but put her in front of a computer and she admits she gets a little lost.

That was why when she received a letter a year ago from lawyers represent the Recording Industry Association of America claiming she illegally downloaded more than 400 songs from the Internet, she didn't think anything of it.

"I don't do anything with the computer," said the retired housekeeper. She does own a computer she bought years ago for her granddaughter to do school work on.

The civil action was filled in this month Federal Court in Tampa against Saylor for copyright infringement. If Saylor is found guilty she could a minimum of $750 per song.

The Recording Industry Association of America has filled more than 30,000 lawsuits since 2003 against people who downloaded music from peer to peer sites like Limewire and Kazaa.

Last year approximately students 130 at the University of South Florida paid thousands in fines for file sharing and downloading music over the schools network.

"Every student had the ignorance excuse…. 'I didn't know it was illegal' has proven over and over again an excuse with the record industry that doesn't give any credence," said USF Attorney Colin Mailloux. The University acted as the internet provider and chose to forward notices to the students whose computers were identified by the recording industry.

"We viewed it as if a student was caught speeding on our campus. It would be an incident between them and the police," Mailloux said.

The biggest pay out in October of 2007 in Minnesota ordered woman to pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

If strapped with the fines a settlement and attorneys fees Salyor says she doesn't know what she'll do. "The lord has my back."