The recording industry admits it probably erred when it accused a deceased 83-year-old West Virginia woman of illegally trading music over the Internet.
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More than a month after Gertrude Walton of Mount Hope, W.Va., died, a group of record companies named her as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit, the Charleston Gazette said.
They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the name "smittenedkitten."
On Thursday, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America acknowledged Walton was probably not the smittenedkitten it is searching for and would dismiss the suit.
Walton's daughter said her mother hated computers and was "computer illiterate."