RIAA vs Patti Santangelo saga
p2pnet.net news:- Patti Santangelo, still battling the Big 4 music cartel’s RIAA, is determined to take her case to a civil court so she can clear her name; either that, or have her case dismissed ‘with prejudice‘ so she can get on with her life.
But Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) want to be able to continue their attack on Santangelo any time it suits them and are arguing that if the case is dismissed, it should be ‘without prejudice,’ meaning they can drag it up again at their leisure.
Nor does the RIAA want a date set for a trial. It wants to keep things going without resolution for as long as possible knowing that, unlike Santangelo, a single mother of five, it has the financial and legal resources to be able to do so; and, that it’ll have to answer its allegations in depth and in detail if and when it’s actually forced to try to prove its case in a court before a jury. And that’s something it wants to avoid at all costs.
Now, “In Elektra v. Santangelo, the RIAA has submitted reply papers arguing that the dismissal should be ‘without prejudice’,” says Recording Industry vs The People, going on, “Included in the reply papers was a declaration by Tom Mizzone of MediaSentry in which he claims that over a period of ten (10) months he repeatedly sent instant messages to the alleged iMesh user at the exact same IP address.”
So?
“Huh?” – posts Alter_Fritz.
I thought it was already well established that an IP address is NOT a specific person, nor is an IP address the same as a street address in real life. And that a username in KaZaA is NOT a unique identifier for one specific person.
Mr. Gabriel’s move to introduce instant messages of Mr. Mizzone look to me like a classical Chewbacca defense.
We all know that there are child molesters out there that send instant messages to the unsuspecting children. That’s why we block those scum and their messages and thats what the ISP’s are doing for those parents that are not so computerliterate.
Mr. Mizzone already admitted in Canada that his messages have no value what so ever;
“Q. If I take you to paragraph 13, you say there:
“Since August 13, 2003, MediaSentry, on behalf of CRIA,
has sent more than 694,000 ‘instant messages.’”
What’s the significance of August the 13th, 2003; what’s that about?
A. Just when that program started.
Q. Okay. Did you — you didn’t send out any of these messages, did you?
A. Me personally?
Q. Yes.
A. No.
[...]
Q. Do you know what software was used to send these messages?
A. Yes.
Q. What was it?
A. The Kazaa application.
Q. Do you know what version of Kazaa?
A. Not off the top of my head, no.
Q. Do you know whether it was version 2.5.1 or later?
A. Not off the top of my head.
Q. Do you know that in version 2.5.1 of Kazaa and thereafter that the instant-messaging function was disabled by default?
A. I know that at some version of Kazaa they disabled the receipt of incoming messages by default.
Q. What was the name of the sender? Do you know the name of the sender that was used on these messages?
A. No.
[...]“
Instant messages have IMO nothing to do with a question about dismissing with or without prejudice. Mr. Gabriel and the record label plaintiffs must be very desperate that Mr. Mizzone’s messaging habbits ammount to a “Wookiee on Endor”.
Also See:
still battling – Us, Them, p2p and file sharing, December 9, 2006
with prejudice – New Santangelo motion, March 1, 2007
Recording Industry vs The People – In Elektra v. Santangelo, RIAA Submits Reply Papers Arguing Dismissal Should be “Without Prejudice”, March 12, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 13th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Jon. I had to search that one.
The stuff I learn reading your site….