Oklahoma nurse vs the RIAA
p2p news / p2pnet: Another American mother has joined the growing number of people who are refusing to be cowed by the music industry’s bully-boy tactics.
The Big Four Organized Music record label cartel says Debbie Foster, a registered nurse at a hospital in Oklahoma, has been sharing music without their permission. But she denies that and furthermore, says she doesn’t even have a computer that works.
The Big Four’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has just added another 754 men, women and children to it’s list of sue ‘em all victims, bringing the total to around 17,000.
So far, not one of these people has appeared before a court or has been found guilty of anything. But it now seems the first case since the cartel launched its bizarre marketing campaign in 2003 may go to trial. It centres on Patricia Santangelo, the New York mother of five who decided she wasn’t going to give in to blackmail by Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Warner Music. However, Judge Colleen McMahon denied Santangelo’s motion to have the file sharing case brought against her by the Big Four dismissed.
The labels are trying to paint a picture in which millions of people around the world get up every morning, bent on “stealing” lossy, low-fidelity mp3 music files from them.
The assertion is as ridiculous as it looks. Nothing has been stolen, no money has changed hands and no sales have been lost and in fact, as has been suggested on numerous occasions by any number of academic and commercial research papers and independent on- and offline sources, including Britain’s authoritative The Economist, any troubles the music industry has are entirely of its own making,
Demanded money from her
Foster is a Cox Communications account holder, says a court document from her lawyer, Marilyn Barringer-Thomson.
But, “Debbie has and continues to deny that she had any knowledge of KAZAA,” it says, going on, “Debbie is absolutely without any knowledge of how to download material off of the internet.
“At the March 2, 2005 Scheduling Conference conducted by the Court, counsel for Debbie, requested that the Plaintiffs voluntarily provide the specific dates of the alleged infringement, but for some reason Plaintiffs are unable (or unwilling) to provide actual dates.”
The document says last summer Foster was contacted by telephone by Big Music which demanded money from her.
“Debbie informed Plaintiffs’ settlement representative that she did not download any songs from the internet,” says the Barringer-Thomson court paper, continuing, “Thereafter, Plaintiffs’ settlement representative telephoned Debbie to demand payment of $5,000 and further told Debbie that the Plaintiffs will go down to $3,750.
“Debbie again informed Plaintiffs’ settlement representative that she did not download any songs from the internet.
” Despite being placed on notice that Debbie did not download any songs, the Plaintiffs filed this action against Debbie and the Plaintiffs continue to impugn Debbie’s character and subject her to demands which are closely akin to extortion.”
We understand the labels are also going after Foster’s daughter, Amanda.
Foster is only one of the people being tormented by the music industry in this way.
The strange and warped marketing plan under which the labels are suing their own customers is being presented as a raging success when actually, it’s a dismal and pathetic failure which doing no more than to make a lot of ordinary people suffer needlessly.
Over the next little while, we plan to bring you further information about Foster and a number of other victims who are fighting for their rights against Organized Music.
Stay tuned.
Also read:-
sue ‘em all victims – 754 new RIAA p2p lawsuits, December 1, 2005
Colleen McMahon – Santangelo appeal dismissed, November 28, 2005
December 2nd, 2005 at 12:33 am
“it’s a dismal and pathetic failure which doing no more than to make a lot of ordinary people suffer needlessly”
And where are the religious groups, the labor unions, Consumer Reports, Ralph Nader, the politival partie (are they not supposed to support the people), the press. Answer: Nowhere to be see.
I have this on my web page:
Said a Nazi era German:
One day they took away my neighbor to the concentration camp. Because of fear, I said nothing. Another day another neighbor was also taken away. Again, I said nothing. Then I was taken away. No one said anything. Then they took all my neighbors away.
Here, the judge said nothing, protected the criminals and punished the victims.
Puertorican judge Angel Hermida:
“I dare not predict what will happen in federal court because in federal court anything can happen…”.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:03 am
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
=============
First they came for the Software Copiers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Software Copier.
Then they came for the Music Downloaders
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Music Downloaders.
Then they came for the Bloggers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Blogger.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Anon.
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:44 am
Here again is a glaring hole in the justice and the attempts of the RIAA to brand everything that moves as pirate.
How can anyone claim infringement by another if the victim isn’t capable of performing infringement? Yet if falsely accused, what out does the victim have? Pay the settlement, even though not guilty merely because it is cheaper than attempting to clear one’s name?
What recourse does the victim have? The Settlement Center doesn’t want to hear anything but when the money is coming. They are a collection agency in the worse of terms in what that means. They have been most carefully instructed that guilt or innocence has no bearing in their duties to wring the victim dry of funds. (Of course if you go this route there is no way to pay the money without signing a rider that admits guilt, whether you are or are not guilty.) Fighting the RIAA is guarenteed to be long and drawn out so that maximum financial pain is achieved on the victim. Merely paying the court costs of the case won’t restore the victims’ financial health to the levels before the introduction of the terror campaign into their lives. The victim has no where to turn; certainly if falsely accused.
In criminal cases at least there is a prehearing of sorts to determine if there is enough evidence to continue. No such protection exists for the victim in civil case of infringement. With the latest rulings of court judges it doesn’t look like the victim has a chance to prove innocence short of losing what little they have. What a sad state for “justice” to exist in, where only the powerful that can readily send in a row of lawyers and where the “accused infringer” can only push forward with a single representive due to financial constraints. It doesn’t sound like justice is to be served for the lowly and that’s a sad state of affairs.
December 2nd, 2005 at 5:13 am
THis is all interesting but i was just on looking for The Grey Album and apperently there is a new “Gray Tuesday” dec. 13th why no info???
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:37 pm
The Christian Coalition of America is in bed with the movie and music cartel that spews porn and violence to the American people. They clearly side with these cartels. Much the same with the rest of Oreganized religion. Any church that holds a 501C3 tax exempt status (That is most of them) is beholded not to make political statements. Organized religion serves one purpose and one purpose only, and that purpose is to keep people subject to the rule of government no mattter how unjust. This is one reason why organized religion is steadily losing the support of the population. Organized religion is also hurting Bible believers everywhere as well.
As far as the press is concerned, look at who owns the press. That’s right the same media moguls who own interests in Time Warner, Disney, Sony, and other members of the media cartel. This is one of the many reasons why corporate press releases is considered unquestionably as news. The only reason why Sony’s crimes were even reported by the LameScream media is because people were already talking about it in the blogs and eventually word would have gotten out in the streets. The “news” organizations have to maintain some credibility if they want to influence the minds of the sheeple.
As for the Republican-Democratic Partie, we know where their campaign contributions come from. Talking heads from each faction rail against each other in the LameScream Press and buddy up to each other at their fancy cocktail parties. They have been quite excellent in fooling most of the voting public into believing that there is effective difference between the factions. There is not!!!
Labor unions are known for their corruption. Very few are nothing but mouthpieces for their corporate managers and the part of the political party that they support. The labor union is an efficient way to make workers support a political faction (via union dues) in order to be allowed to work at a company. There are a few exceptions, though.
Ralph Nader is a member of another political party called the reform party. Since he is not a member of the LameScream political Partie, he does not get a chance to appear in the cartel-controlled LameScream media. While I do not agree with many of his policies, I do wish that he could be heard. I believe the same for candidates for ALL of the political parties.
As for the courts, they are ruled by lawyers call judges. Judges rule for those who can speak the best legalese. Most care nothing about the rule of law. They care about how other judges have ruled in the past (case law). The best hope for the people being sued is for them to have a jury trial. There might be a chance that enough jurors will
have a clue as how things are really supposed to work.
I’m afraid, Rafael, that all of the mechanisms that have been establiched to protect we the people have been thoroughly currupted by those with the most money. It is going to take a grass roots uprising against the criminal organizations which run our country. Hopefully, this grass roots rebellion will begin next election time and hopefully it can be accomplished at the ballot box rather than elsewhere.
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:44 pm
If someone knows the address or telephone number (toll free number would be nice) of this settlement center, please post it. Is grounds for a class action suit against the Settlement Center, RIAA, or MPAA? How hard would it be for the “lowly” person to send a few bucks to lawyers supporting plaintiffs in this class action suit? If we stick together like a swarm of angry worker bees, I believe that we could put a big hurting on the cartels and their little settlement center.
December 2nd, 2005 at 3:40 pm
In response to an above post, I validate organized religion’s function to keep people subject to rule of government. The pastor of the church in the below article dared to speak out against the war. I guess the 501C3 status is dependent upon the pastor of a church not excercising his right to free speech. I may disagree with this pastor’s sermon, but I am willing to defend to the death his right to give it.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47679
December 2nd, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Here’s one of them anyways
http://p2pnet.net/story/6337