Sue the Bush twins

Well, the RIAA has always wanted to have some high-profile, headline-grabbing targets to sue to stress the importance of respecting copyright. Now, a Florida lawyer, Mitchell Silverman has sent them a request that they do just that:

As you will see from the attached article from today’s The Miami Herald, President George W. Bush’s daughters made him a presumably illegal compilation CD, a so-called “mix CD,” as a Father’s Day present. As the article, at http://www.miamiherald.com/692/story/142726.html states, “[President] Bush's twin daughters, gave him [as a Father’s Day present] a CD they had made for him to listen to while exercising.”

This is a serious violation of copyright. As you know, whichever of your member organizations that are right-holders for the copied musical works may be entitled to statutory damages of $150,000.00 per musical work copied.

I hope and expect that you at the RIAA will display the same vigor in prosecuting this matter and protecting the rights of your rights-holders that it has displayed in enforcing those rights against other alleged violators.

You can read the full text of the letter at Mitchell's blog; he also calculates that at RIAA rates, there's about $1.8 million they should be going for.

It would also give the RIAA a chance to prove, once and for all, they only go after the poor, the weak, and those least able to defend themselves. In a legal sense.

[Thanks to Michael M for the link]