RIAA sues 12-year old for music downloads

The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) threatened to sue a twelve-year-old girl for illegally downloading music from the net.

This move was part of a wider lawsuit the RIAA has filed against 261 internet users, who it claims had been illegally distributing an average of more than 1,000 copyrighted music files each.

Brianna LaHara from New York was accused of downloading nursery rhymes and TV themes and offering them to other children. Brianna's mother has agreed to pay $2,000 (£1,260) compensation to the RIAA.

According to reports, Brianna's mother paid a £20 a month subscription fee to a file swapping service and as a result she thought her daughter was free to download files.