Record industry lawyers beset jobless mom over dow

Record industry lawyers beset jobless mom over dow : ServeNow.com: "Here's a consequence that has probably occurred to few, if any, people as they casually traded 'free' music via a peer-to-peer network on the Internet:

Nanci Dion, a single mother and unemployed nurse who lives in Somers, has spent the last few months sending personal financial information to representatives of three record companies that are suing her based on claims that her computer was used to trade copyrighted songs.

Advertisement 'They want my bank accounts. They want my mortgage papers. They want my medical records,' Dion said in an interview last week.

The record companies - Warner Brothers Records Inc., UMG Recordings Inc., and Sony BMG Music Entertainment - want information on all her credit cards, specifically the available credit on each. She finds that request particularly frightening.

'I'm deathly afraid they're going to take my credit,' says Dion, who lives in a modest ranch house on Sunset Drive in Somers with her son, Jonathan, 15.

Dion has been giving her financial information to the record companies under what they call a 'voluntary hardship program.' In other words, they are holding out the possibility of a reduced settlement offer, possibly with an installment payment plan, if she can demonstrate financial hardship.