Mother Settles Piracy Case

American music industry officials have agreed to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit against a 12-year-old New York girl for $2,000 (£1,258).

The announcement of the settlement came a day after the Manhattan schoolgirl, Brianna LaHara, was identified in the US media as a target of the Recording Industry Association of America's first wave of lawsuits aimed at cracking down on internet piracy.

In a statement, the RIAA said it had reached a settlement with the schoolgirl's mother, Sylvia Torres.

In an apparent attempt not to turn Ms LaHara into a cause célèbre, the statement included an apology from her for downloading music from the peer-to-peer service Kazaa. "I am sorry for what I have done," she said. "I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love."

She could have faced fines of up to $150,000 for each copyright infringement.

Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the RIAA, said: "We're trying to send a strong message that you are not anonymous when you participate in peer-to-peer file sharing and that the illegal distribution of copyrighted music has consequences. As this case illustrates, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers."

Ms LaHara had more than 1,000 copyrighted songs stored on her computer hard drive. By using the desktop file-sharing programme, the songs were available for other users to copy for free.

According to court papers she had copied songs from other computer users including Madonna's Material Girl, Dido's Here with Me and Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract.

The first wave of suits has also included a Yale University photography professor, two New York University students, a music programmer for a commercial radio station and a 71-year-old Texan grandfather.

The RIAA has said that thousands of other suits could be filed.