HAMMOND- (Article Courtesy Post-Tribune, http://www.post-trib.com)
By: John Grant Emeigh / Post-Tribune Staff Writer, JEMEIGH@POST-TRIB.COM
Originally Published in the Gary Post Tribune, March 1, 2005

A northern Indiana resident was one of thousands caught up in a massive copyright infringement lawsuit sweep by the recording industry Monday (Feb 28. 2005)

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit against Shelly Nelson in U.S. District Court in Hammond alleging Nelson acquired and distributed copyrighted materials without permission. The RIAA Filed the suit on behalf of nine recording companies including Capitol Records, Atlantic Records and Virgin Records America Inc.

Monday's suit accuses Nelson, who lives in the Northern District of Indiana, of using a computer to download music and made it available for distribution over the Internet through an illegal file sharing network.

A phone call was made to a Shelly Nelson with an address listed in Lake Station seeking comment, but the phone number was disconnected.

Jenni Engebresten, spokesperson for the RIAA in New York, said Monday that Nelson was one of more than 9,000 individuals the group filed lawsuits against in the past two years.

"There has been a new round of lawsuits filed this month (February)," she said, which includes about 750 people.

Engebresten said the RIAA started cracking down on people for illegally distributing copyrighted music on the Interent, via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as KaZaa, eDonkey and Grokster.

According to the lawsuit, Nelson allegedly illegally downloaded and distributed 17 songs from various artists including, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Paula Abdul and Alabama. The suit included several prints of Nelson's website that allegedly has numerous songs available for unauthorized use.

RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement released Monday that his groups is aggressibely targeting individuals who illegaly distribute copyrighted material.

"Even while we work to hold accountable the businesses that encourage and profit from illegal file sharing, it's critical to simultaneously send a mstrong message that the individual users of these pirate netowrks cna be caught and face the consequences," Sherman said.

Among those sued Monday are users of computer networks at 11 universited and colleges, including Loyola University Chicago.

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