Robin Chianumba claims that her 83 year old mother, Gertrude Walton, didn't even know how to operate a computer much less illegally download music. Walton, who lived in Beckley, West Virginia received notification of the pending suit in December. Chianumba promptly sent a copy of her mother's death certificate to the RIAA, but that seemingly didn't sway them from their mission to litigate this case.

Only after the story came out in the press has the RIAA backpedaled. "Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago," said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. "We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case."

The Future: Another Public Relations pie in the face of the RIAA. Obviously this woman passed after the RIAA initiated the suit, and the daughters claims about her mother being a "computer illiterate" cannot be substantiated, however this is only more fodder for the RIAA's opposition. Maybe they should stick with college students...

Part of Experiments In Sound, TestDrive will feature the lab results of our DJ Experiments so that everyone can get in on the action. Take the latest electronic music releases, mix vigorously with bleeding-edge DJ technology in a large beeker, and then cook the hell out of it! Be the first to hear about TestDrive by joining Futuremusic Direct.

Futuremusic wants to thank everyone who participated in The Next Big Thing 2004. John Digweed, Beatport, Alienware, M-Audio, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, PVDJ, PK Graphics, Ableton, The DubHouse, Propellerheads, Technics, FreeFloat, The Church, PCDJ and every DJ who entered this year's event thank you. From the sheer number of quality mixes, we can tell you that dance music is thriving in the United States. The amount of outstanding talent and creativity really blew us away, and every DJ who's putting their heart, mind and soul behind the music is a winner. John Digweed has made his decision and the winner is...