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KF man sued for illegal recording Published Tuesday May 2, 2006By LAURA McVICKER H&N Staff WriterLeslie Maxfield received a letter from the Recording Industry Association of America last year, saying he may be picked at random for a copyright infringement lawsuit.The letter warned him to stop using the Internet's peer-to-peer music sharing services not authorized by record companies. Maxfield of Klamath Falls says his 19-year-old daughter downloaded music on Limewire as a supplement to CDs that were getting scratched. She immediately stopped after he received the letter, he said.But the RIAA, on behalf of several record companies, filed a civil suit this month against Maxfield and three other Oregon residents in separate complaints, alleging they illegally uploaded and downloaded music over the Internet. The civil suits were among 235 filed across the United States on April 21.Services like Limewire let people upload music, or share music they already own with others, and download music, or take music provided online free of charge.The Klamath Falls maintenance technician says the suit blindsided him.“They're making it out to sound like I'm a big bad criminal,” he said. “I'm whistle clean.”Maxfield says he's never distributed music to others and only downloaded music he already owned.“I feel singled out,” he said. “You're telling me that in two million people on that site ... What are the odds that I would be picked?” Under federal copyright laws, Maxfield could be charged anywhere from $750 to $150,000 per song if he was found guilty. The complaint lists 834 songs and seven record companies, including Capitol Records and Warner Brothers Records Inc.Jenni Engebretsen, a spokeswoman for RIAA, said she couldn't comment on the process the association uses to decide who to file suit against.The association filed the suit against Maxfield after first filing a “John Doe” lawsuit because it didn't have his family's name. Then, the association subpoenaed his name from his Internet provider.RIAA officials say the lawsuits are intended to deter song sharing, which financially harms the record industry. Since September 2003, RIAA has filed suit against 18,200 individuals nationwide and also has taken legal action against file sharing services.“Record companies are offering fans an extraordinary digital music experience, but the growth of the digital music market will suffer if we allow this theft to go unchecked,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement.Maxfield says he hasn't visited Limewire since receiving the letter, and he visited Kazaa, another media sharing service named in the complaint, once about four years ago. In addition, he says Limewire provides a disclaimer that downloading music is legal if the user already owns the music.According to the complaint filed in the federal court in Medford, Maxfield is accused of using an online media sharing service “to download the copyrighted recordings, to distribute the copyrighted recordings to the public and/or to make the copyrighted recordings available for the distribution to others.” Maxfield says he has no plans of settling the suit out of court because he's not guilty.“I'm not gonna cave and say I'm guilty of something I didn't do,” he said
