Does this take the cake, or what? We've been reading for months about the music industry's intent to sue music downloaders. We assumed they were going to go after the worst abusers. They settled on suing 241 people. We expected these would be users who would be reselling the music for profit.

Not quite. Turns out sued a 12 year old. Not only that, they accepted a $2,000.00 settlement from the girl's mother.

We're sorry the mother settled. This would have been a public relations disaster for the music industry:

The family lives in a city housing project on New York's Upper West Side, and they said they mistakenly believed they were entitled to download music over the Internet because they had paid $29.99 for software that gives them access to online file-sharing services.

If you are worried about liability (this rash of suits is just the first wave), they are offering amnesty if you 'fess up before getting sued and promise never to be bad again.

In an effort to soften the legal attack, the record industry group is also offering amnesty for file sharers who turn themselves in before legal action is taken against them. Under the "clean slate" program unveiled by the industry yesterday, people seeking amnesty must destroy files that they have downloaded illegally and sign a notarized form pledging never to trade copyrighted works again.