PiracyWatch: Record Industry Antagonist Retires Her War Against RIAA

By Eriq Gardner

File-sharers and copyfighters will need to find a new hero. Denise Barker, a Bronx woman, has decided she doesn't want to fight the RIAA anymore and will settle an infringement case brought against her by the recording industry.

The case against Barker became one of the most watched in the history of the RIAA's pursuit against individual file-sharers. Baker first challenged the RIAA's "making available" legal theory, and when that didn't work out, she admitted liability and challenged the constitutionality of the Copyright Act. But now, three weeks after she made that move, apparently, she's backing down, accepting a settlement of $6,050 to be paid to the RIAA, or $756.25 per song infringed.

Digital Music News asks, "Is the RIAA dancing around a number of potentially damaging precedents?"

"Now Ms. Barker's attack on the constitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory... will not be adjudicated, and it will fall on the shoulders of other defendants to carry the day on those issues," writes her attorney, Ray Beckerman.