The head of peer-to-peer (P2P) company Grokster has offered to pay the $2,000 settlement the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has agreed with a 12-year-old girl over her file sharing.

Wayne Rosso, president of P2P software development company Grokster, said he had made the offer because he was "disgusted" by the RIAA's tactics.

The mother of Brianna Lahara, one of 261 people slapped with a lawsuit by the RIAA, had agreed to pay the organisation $2,000 because her daughter allegedly shared more than 1,000 copyrighted songs.

The schoolgirl released a statement through the RIAA, which read: "I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and I don't want to hurt the artists I love."

But Rosso plans to step in and pay the fine. "I'm trying to contact the mother to offer to pay the $2,000 for her out of my own pocket. I'm disgusted by the RIAA and its extortion tactics," he told vnunet.com.

"I thought that the two Joes, McCarthy and Stalin, were dead. But little did I know that they're both alive and well and running the RIAA."

A further 260 users face lawsuits, including a 71 year-old grandfather.

A number of users fear that the RIAA could be less lenient with the costs it asks for and sue them for thousands of dollars in compensation.

But the shock and awe tactics by the RIAA are worrying some US politicians.

"I don't think we need to club people to death to get them to understand that downloading is a problem. I worry that the tactics and the tools are excessive," Senator Norm Coleman said in a statement.