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  1. This is just too funny.

    Music Industry Sues 83-Year-Old Dead Woman


    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Gertrude Walton was recently targeted by the recording industry in a lawsuit that accused her of illegally trading music over the Internet. But Walton died in December after a long illness, and according to her daughter, the 83-year-old hated computers.

    More than a month after Walton was buried in Beckley, a group of record companies named her as the sole defendant in a federal lawsuit, claiming she made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name ``smittenedkitten.''

    Walton's daughter, Robin Chianumba, lived with her mother for the last 17 years and said her mother objected to having a computer in the house.

    ``My mother was computer illiterate. She hated a computer,'' Chianumba said. ``My mother wouldn't know how to turn on a computer.''

    Chianumba said she faxed a copy of her mother's death certificate to record company officials several days before the lawsuit was filed, in response to a letter from the company regarding the upcoming legal filing.

    ``I believe that if music companies are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people,'' Chianumba said. ``I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park (where she is buried) to attend the hearing.''

    A Recording Industry Association of America spokesman said Thursday that Walton was likely not the smittenedkitten it is searching for.

    ``Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago,'' said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. ``We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case.''

    Information from: The Charleston Gazette, http://www.wvgazette.com




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