Second Santangelo case settled – almost
p2pnet news view RIAA News:- It looks as though Michelle and Bobby Santangelo are finally out from under.
The two, together with their mother, were early victims of the twisted RIAA sue ‘em all fear campaign under which first the parent(s), in this case Patti, and then the children, are accused of being massive online distributors of copyrighted music so they can be publicly humiliated and embarrassed .
The Santangelo case was important in two respects
- With her lawyer, Jordan Glass, Patti is believed to have been the first RIAA defendant to have made a motion to dismiss the complaint, attacking the RIAA’s ‘making available’ theory, as Ray Beckerman points out in Recording Industry vs The People.
- p2pnet readers raised more than $15,000 to help towards her legal expenses in the first, and still the only, example of members of the P2P community actively standing up for RIAA victims.
Now, “the parties have reached a Settlement-in-Principle and the underlying work is being prepared the signature,” says a court document. “All aspects of the settlement are expected to be concluded and filed with the court by March 18, 2009.”
Details haven’t been disclosed.
All in the name of the bottom line
In 2005, “If you`re a Christian, December 22 is a mere three days before Christmas, the season of good will and good cheer,” said p2pnet, going on »»»
And even if you`re not, it heralds a holiday, a time to kick back and give and receive presents and generally relax and have fun.
Unless you`re Organized Music, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, EMI or Warner Music, the Hard-Core Big Four corporate record labels, that is. Because there`s certainly no goodwill or good cheer there.
And unless you`re Patricia Santangelo, the New York mother who epitomizes the 17,000 or so Americans who have so far been victimized by the Big Four, and all in the name of the bottom line.
On December 22, she`ll be stand alone and unrepresented in a New York court for an In Person conference with judge Mark D. Fox in Elektra v Santangelo — or, more properly, Patti Santangelo versus the Elektra Entertainment Group, Virgin Record America, UMG Recordings, BMG Music and the disgraced Sony BMG Music Entertainment company.
This morning , Patti is resolved, is she? – my wife asked. Yes, I said. She knows exactly what she`s letting herself in for. She knows about Cecilia Gonzalez. And she also knew about Brittany Chan, a 14-year-old scgoolgirl, and Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living on a disability pension who`ve also been singled out by the cartel for special treatment.
It`s terrible, really, having to think of this just before Christmas, says Patti. It`s exhausting to have to be thinking and worry about this at any time of the year, but just before Christmas?
But as she also told p2pnet today, This isn`t just for me. It`s for all those other people as well.
Sony won`t be under any stress, of course. It has legions of highly paid lawyers taking care of bidnes and the Sony bosses, such as Andy Lack (upper right), will be thinking of other things, including the official launch of the corporate Mashboxx `p2p` application (for which Lack is a prime mover) beta.
But that`s not the case for Santangelo. She`ll all too soon be standing by herself in the first of the Organized Music extortion cases to actually come to trial.
Laws were written to protect people, not to give huge, multi-billion dollar mega-corporations a way to terrorize them, we wrote recently. Will the law work equally well for an ordinary person with no heavyweight legal team and no unimaginably vast financial resources behind her?
Patricia Santangelo will find out
‘I’m willing to take it as far as I have to’
A year later, “Assuming your case ends up in court, how far are you willing to go?” – said p2pnet, re-stating a question I’d asked Patti in a Q&A.
“I’m willing to take it as far as I have to to prevent other innocent people being dragged in
to frivolous lawsuits,” she said.
“It’s wrong.”
“Now she’s prevailed,” said the post.
The RIAA had dropped its case against her. But that didn’t mean she could relax. Far from it.
Because this was only the completion of Stage One in the vicious RIAA attack on the Santangelos.
In Stage Two, her place was been taken by Michell and Bobby, two of her five children, both represented by Jordan Glass, the one-man legal office who`s been acting for their mother pro bono.
In another p2pnet story, Glass asked »»»
Do you want to live in a country where it`s acceptable that the federal government and big businesses are notified to protect them from falling in to legal traps, but where individuals are not so protected or warned?
Do you want to live in a country where laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protect ISPs and the RIAA, but create traps for individuals, in particular those who aren`t technically superior (forget about merely savvy)?
Do you want to live in a country where you`re legally responsible and liable for the acts of others, when you *can`t know* what they`re doing, and, in the case of computers, where even if you were able to watch, you wouldn`t understand unless you had specific technical training?
Do you want to live in a country where you`re legally responsible and liable for the acts of trespassers whose actions are invisible to you?
Do you want to live in a country where you`re legally responsible and liable for all of the above, when those who control the flow of information have the capacity, capability, power, right, authority, technology, know-how, scientific and technological acumen – and virtually limitless money – are free to ignore the problem they created, and instead place the burden, blame, financial and legal responsibility on people who have neither the right nor the know-how to protect themselves against the problem?
Stay tuned.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
February , 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) â Lawyers have reached a tentative settlement in a music piracy lawsuit filed by the recording industry against the children of one of its best-known opponents, both sides said Friday Feb. 27, 2009. Once the settlement is finalized, it would end a long battle between the industry and the family of Patti Santangelo, who was sued in 2005 for pirating music through file-sharing computer networks.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:47 am
Do you want to live in a country where…
Jon, you can add:
Do you want to live in a country where a copyright law says that yo may be liable for up to $150,000 damages regardless of an actual damage caused by copying one song one time for your own personal use only?
Do you want to live in a country where you have to comply with a copyright law you cannot possibly understand and on which there is no agreement among lawyers and courts as to its meaning and interpretation?
Do you want to live in a country where the politicians do not work for the people and actually act as if they represent business interests?