Santangelo vs the RIAA
p2pnet.net News:- News that the Big Four record label cartel may at long last have to answer for its venal sue ‘em all customer intimidation campaign is doing the rounds.
As we posted recently, Patricia Santangelo, the mother of five children who’s one of the victims, decided she’s not willing to sit around waiting for the cartel’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) take her.
The labels are demanding $7,500 to stop harassing Santangelo but New York law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman, with Ray Beckerman in the lead, is now representing her.
Picking up on p2pnet’s Q&A with Beckerman, “Santangelo originally received a letter from the RIAA demanding a settlement payment for illegally uploading copy-protected works,” says digital music news. “But unlike thousands of others that have quickly settled out-of-court, Santangelo took the unusual step of challenging the RIAA. The move, which first surfaced earlier this month, is now steadily gaining momentum …
“ ‘We will fight to the end,’ Beckerman told p2pnet. ‘I can say that in Elektra v. Santangelo, the basis for our motion to dismiss complaint was that the complaint failed to allege any specific acts of infringement.’ Continued Beckerman, ‘The Courts have consistently required specific acts of copying, and the dates and times of those acts.”
digital music news has an industry lawyer who’s familiar with the case saying the argument, “represents a significant challenge to the RIAA, and will be a big part of the defense. Now, the stare-down with the RIAA begins, with Santangelo assuming a massive financial risk with the challenge.
“But the stakes are equally high for the RIAA, and the trade group is likely to throw a great deal of resources to avoid a negative precedent.”
Misinformation and disinformation
The RIAA is one of many pseudo-police enforcement organizations which double as PR and marketing outlets, and which are owned by the entertainment and software industry cartels.
These units include the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) BPI (British Phonographic Industry), BSA (Business Software Alliance), and so on and etcetera.
One of their primary roles as industry mouthpieces is to disseminate misinformation and disinformation releases, knowing they’ll be regurgitated by mainstream media outlets (significant numbers of which are owned and/or controlled directly or indirectly by the movie and/or music companies) as gospel.
A typical example of this kind of fact realigment exercise comes on the Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People site
“An RIAA spokesman has been making false statements to the press about the MGM v. Grokster case,” says Beckerman.
“He has been saying that the Supreme Court held that file sharing is ‘garden variety theft’. In fact the court’s decision says nothing of the kind.
“The only reference to ‘garden variety theft’ is in the concurring opinion of Justice Breyer, in which Justice Breyer opined that the Court should not deviate from Sony v. Betamax:.”
If there’s something you think we should know, tips[at]p2pnet.net
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win – Mohandas Gandhi
See:-
not willing – New York mom battles Big Music, August 15, 2005
Q&A with Beckerman – Mother of 5 takes on Big Music, August 28, 2005
digital music news – Barristers Buzzing on Upcoming RIAA Legal Challenge, August 31, 2005
August 31st, 2005 at 11:36 pm
RIAA will back out “as a gesture of goodwill” rather than lose a precident. Then they will continue suing the easiest and poorest targets they can find.
September 1st, 2005 at 12:29 am
They can’t just back out anymore. There is a pending motion to dismiss. They could only back out with a court order.
Best regards,
Ray Beckerman
September 1st, 2005 at 12:30 am
They can’t just back out anymore. There is a pending motion to dismiss. They could only back out with a court order.
Best regards,
Ray Beckerman
September 1st, 2005 at 4:11 am
but if so, you GO, boy! a whole lot of us are rooting for your side
September 1st, 2005 at 8:27 am
Maybe you guys need something like DBAN(http://dban.sourceforge.net/)or Acronis Drive Cleanser.Both product are designed to completely destroy the whole harddrive.
To destroy data in computer,the stupidest way is delete folder directly.The “deleting” function in operating system does not actually remove the data,it only remove “index” to it and thus deleted data are recoverable.The better way is to use “wiper” to overwrite data several times,however this is not completely secure since there might be hidden trace left in the harddrive(Virtual Memory,temporary files,cache……).The best way is to use the programmes I mentioned to destroy data and do it several times.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Santangelo has become an inspriational figure to us much as Cindy Sheehan was when she camped outside of President W’s cowboy ranch in Texas. Here we have a mom standing up for what is right and who was initially dismissed and disregarded by those with hubris who wielded their power.
Thank you Beckerman and the law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman for standing up for what is right.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:14 pm
That’s Ray Beckerman – I promise.
Cheers!
September 1st, 2005 at 2:26 pm
Here is another option. This one is simple for those who do not want to delete all data on their hard drive. It allows one to delete the files most likely to be used against you and then overwrites all sectors not allocated to files. Overwrites the stuff that already is deleted.
This is of course not quite as safe as the “secure” deletion of the entire harddrive, but every little bit helps.
1. Run the newest version or Ad-aware ( http://www.lavasoft.de )
2. Delete the MRU (registry entries containing the most recently used files) data.
3. In the Application Data folder go into Real and the RealOne Player directory. Delete cookies. Then go into history folder and select all object and delete them.
4. Open all browsers and delete cookies cache, and history
5. Clear out all the temporary folders of incriminating information.
6. Clear out know sharing folder and private folders with incriminating information or files. Research each program you regularly use and know where history, temporay files and anything that can cause you trouble is stored. Clear these out as well.
7. Check for thumbnail and favicon directories and clear them.
8. Empty recycle bin. (VERY IMPORTANT)
9. Now put a very large (at least several tens of megabytes) file on the root directory of the hard drive to be swept and call it filler .
10. Now create a batch file and call it wipe.bat
In this file put in following three lines
:start
type filler >> wiped
goto start
11. Go to the root directory and run wipe.bat
12. After there is no free space on the hard drive, terminate the batch job and delete the file called wiped .
13. Doing this will make softwafe forensic analysis quite a bit more difficult. It will cost a lot more money for the police agency to have the hard drive analyzed.
This is the simplelest, least expensive way that I know of to protect your ‘deleted’ data.
Cyberscan
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:27 pm
What I find most interesting are the recent TV ad’s regarding DSL and Cable modem access.
These TV ad’s make it sould like you can download music over the internet, which you can. However they make if sound like music downloads are provided for free with their service. The average person would assume for free/legally IMHO.
It’s like Winchester advertising that once you purchase one of their firearms people will just start handing over their money. This of course could be true depending on how you use their product. (Yes I’m reaching but you get the point)
September 2nd, 2005 at 9:04 pm
also get a second hd just for downloading, storing temp files etc. Best bet if your hit throw away the hd and buy another. Also certainly use a router, preferably wireless. Also don’t forget about mac addresses.