RIAA targets new family of 5
p2p news / p2pnet: There’s no other way to describe it: the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and it’s owners, Warner Music (USA), EMI (UK), Sony BMG (Japan, Germany) and Vivendi Universal (France) are low-life, hard-core, unprincipled, lying SOBs.
They’ve been falsely claiming that by sharing music online, their own customers have been devastating the music industry and causing terrible hardship to artists and support workers.
In fact, the corporate music industry is doing just fine, apart from the fact it still hasn’t grasped the fact it’s in the 21st digital century, not the 1970s.
It’s even suing children. Ask Patti Santangelo. She’s a single mother with five kids and she and two of them have just been ‘deposed’ by Big Four Organized Music cartel lawyers. She’ll be telling you about that herself, shortly.
Meanwhile, the Big Four are after another family, this time in Philadelphia. And they, too, have five children, including two sets of twins.
We’ll be bring you the full, nasty story within the next couple of days.
For now, here’s a letter Ray Beckerman, who’s representing a number of RIAA victims, received from the father, a carpenter who told p2pnet, “They’re trying to draw blood from a stone.”
Beckerman has the letter on his Recording Industry vs The People blog. He posts, “I received this email from a reader in Pennsylvania. I reproduce it here because I think it captures the torture and anxiety that so many Americans are facing due to the out of control litigation campaign of the RIAA.”
I am being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement, and the case has been going on for the past 2 years.
So far they have deposed all 5 of my children, and my wife, and myself. I also had to fill out admissions and interrogatory answers twice so far and they are still not satisfied with my answers. Most of them I answered that I did not know. I did not know, and was completely unaware of whatever the RIAA is claiming happened. My responses were honest, but that was not good enough for them.
I am defending myself in this case because I can’t afford a lawyer, and it’s hard for me to understand all of the paperwork and the rules of the court. The RIAA is on its 6th different group of lawyers. It seems like they are bottom feeders.
I was just in court in Philadelphia with the RIAA’s Philadelphia representative.
I had been called into court by the judge, Judge Cynthia Rufe, because I had not responded to the RIAA’s second motion to compel even more discovery.
The judge gave me additional time to send in the paperwork, and stated that she intends to set up a trial date sometime in May.
The real shame is that I had no knowledge of any of this until I was served in the mail. Apparently my daughter who was 12 years old at the time had been listening to music on Kazaa
I do not even know how it got on the computer.
I know that I didn’t do anything wrong and I am going to defend myself, but I’m scared to death of the outcome.
Also See:
single mother - Patti Santangelo fund nears $11.5K, March 5, 2006
blog - One Man’s First Hand Account of Being Put Through Hell by the RIAA , April 13, 2006
April 13th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Oh well. Kazaa will nail you every time.
April 14th, 2006 at 1:56 am
I take it the “Oh well” means you couldn’t care less. If Patti Santangelo had a 1$ donation for every smug comment like that, perhaps she’d win her case before the RIAA bullies YOUR ass for using whatever software YOU download with.
April 14th, 2006 at 2:45 am
The corporations control the government & the court system. This is fascism. These companies have lost the innovation game to increasingly advanced technology, so they lobby to change the laws in their favor so they can maintain their monopolies & income stream. This is anti-free market behavior. Howard Stern, whatever you may think of him, is now being frivolously sued by his former employer just because they can, & because they can bankrupt a person in court. Corporations are out of control. They are ruining the business world in their relentless greed. The funny thing is that they always blame the little guy. Hypocrites.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
how can we email directly to the riaa legal dept and promise to boycott the cartels “legal music” until this harrassment stops. …………………. I notice that companies like GM are in big trouble but I don’t see them looking for ways to sue the customer.
April 14th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
I have no sympathy for this father and his sob story. He DID do something wrong. He failed to keep an eye on his children who stole music. Kazaa just doesn’t appear like magic on someone’s PC. It was installed intentionally and then utilized repeatedly. I service PCs and I’m sick and tired of all the whining from parents. Don’t have children if you aren’t going to watch them!! I’m also sick of people trying to convince me that pornography appeared on their PCs by magic. I’ve seen people who are so obsessed with the Internet that I believe they are mentally ill.
April 14th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
That’s a very good point. We have a recently defeated political Party here in Canada who was in power so long they developed a “culture of entitlement”. The companies behind RIAA/MPAA were successful in maintaining a grip on distribution and pricing for the longest time until the internet came along. They think they can move forward on government favours and lawsuits, but they’ll sink clutching their treasure.
April 14th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
You just don’t get it, why the heck do you come here in the first place. The point is you don’t put enitre families into misery for something that didn’t harm you financially.
A DOWNLOAD DOES NOT EQUAL A LOST SALE
SUING PEOPLE WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL GET YOU NOWHERE
April 14th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
someone should just shooting the executives with a nice long range high-powered rifle, wonder ho long it will take the fbi to track me down
April 14th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
You do know some people are not as tech-savvy as you may be. Seeing your job, you should now that. What good does even the most vigilant parent do, if the parent doesn’t know what is bad or not? I work with PCs also, and seen my fair share of people who click away, assuming they are doing the right thing, thinking they are doing the right thing. The world of computers was never easy, and even in this day and age, there are lots of people who have no clue what they are doing on one (Reminds me of my boss at times ^_^)
Not saying I know the whole story, but the benefit of the doubt is in order until we do know.
FM
April 14th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Has anyone invented a toilet big enough to flush this nations rich and fascist governing forces YET!?
The more i see this every day, the More I can’t believe how complacent we all are, as a nation, to have allowed this constant persicution of innocent, mostly moderate to low income people to happen in all aspect of our daily lives.
We need to Help Our Selves to our Rights!
April 14th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
this is so sad. this has to stop. :/
April 14th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
People around the world, let us unite and fight. We are being forced to fear the RIAA and MPAA with their lawsuits and all. It is time that we should fight back and let the RIAA that we are here to stay. What can we do? If I was being sued by the RIAA and will have to face time in prison, I will ask the internet community to raise a bounty to have those bastard killed. That is what I will do. If they want to play this game we can play it better and we can win. They want to intimidate us lets intimidate them back.
To they really think they can stop this? They are a bunch of idiot. Kill em all.
April 14th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
So…can you honestly say when you were a child that your parents saw every single thing that you did? (Watched you non-stop, never letting you out of their sight until you were 18 years of age?) If you did something wrong and your parents were held responsible, are you saying that it’s right for the parents to lose every single thing they’ve ever worked for…..even to the point of making them homeless? This is what the RIAA is doing. Whether you believe in filesharing or you do not, the RIAA is charging extremely unreasonable amounts of money. If you don’t pay them off when they come knocking (whether you are guilty or not), they serve a federal lawsuit on you that would drive most people to be left with nothing for the rest of their lives.
April 14th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Dude get a life……I repair PC’s 2 an I a little girl an I do watch her,but you can not keep an eye on them all the time there kids,I think everyone in the world should boycott the record industry an not buy any cd’s for 1 month an will see how much money they loose.
April 15th, 2006 at 6:08 am
Try this Mr. “Sick and Tired”………
KaZaa is all over the internet…… Kid #1 hears about how cool it is…..
Kid #1 and Kid #2 find it and download/install it…. They use it….. Kid #3, the 12 year old, finds out too and uses it and gets some music, listens to it…. maybe along with Kids #’s 1,2,3,& 4……..
Now this is from a MUCH older “kid”….. BIG FREAKING DEAL…..
The RIAA and their cronies have stepped WAY out of line in the last year or so. “Sick and Tired” of listening to customers ???? QUIT !!! Here is a family that should NEVER, E-V-E-R, hear from the RIAA or any of their hitmen and shyster lawyers. They Rip Off artists, then turn 45 degrees and hose with people and their families that are just trying to get along. Period.
Do YOU have kids ???? Do they EVER step out of your fine guidelines ????
Listen: I work on PC’s as well, as a matter of fact, from your tone, I’m very tempted to believe that I have been involved with PC’s longer than you are old. And you know what else ??? ANYONE that uses the internet to any real extent IS going to have “porn” on their machine, without ever intentionally going to a “porn” site. I personally don’t care for it, and don’t condone it, but snippets and URL’s show up in the folders anyway through freaking popups and all the other goodies of advertising.
The RIAA, the MPAA, and their ilk are just plain on a witch hunt, and they don’t have the BALLS to clean their own shop, and then they hunt down and bludgeon John Q. down the corner. Go get those that upload hundreds of copyrighted MP3’s on a weekly basis. Other than all that…….. You sir…. need to calm down….
I recommend you take a handfull of anti-depressants and calm me downs, and Reeeeeeelllllaaaaxxxxxxxxxxx……. Clean up your customers PC’s for ‘em. Suggest some good soft to them to avoid their “hassles” and install and tweak it for them. Collect the bill, and shut the hell up.
April 15th, 2006 at 6:59 am
Emigrate to europe, away from that dying country.
April 15th, 2006 at 9:14 am
The person filled with compassion for the recording industry likely works for the recording industry. Don’t patronize him people that post such warm and fuzzy comments get off on others reactions, ignore him.
Another poster said boycott for a month that is what is needed a boycott of all the recording industry products. Do not purchase music, videos or go to shows for at least one month. (Personally I say three, actually until they cave.) We have to hit them hard to get our message across and that message is by hurting those that have made you rich you will become poor. You can not bit the hand that feeds you and still expect to get feed!
April 15th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Here’s what you and the RIAA don’t realize: After sampling music off the net, kids 1,2,3,& 4 hassle their parents at the mall for everything from t-shirts, posters and DVDs of their favourite bands. Anyone who’s seen the average teenager’s bedroom understands this, greed is clouding sound judgement.
April 15th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
They’re doing it there too.
April 16th, 2006 at 7:30 am
No talk of shooting or steeling that besides being illegal is counter productive and adds credence to the enemy (the RIAA and company.) We must unite in fortitude and honor not in rhetoric, slander or libel hot air! We must unit and stand against this tyranny. We must stand with right on our side we can not be called hoodlums. We need to stop buying, renting music and videos and stop going to shows. All of us need to do this the sooner we start the sooner they will fall and concede.
April 16th, 2006 at 8:01 am
No talk of shooting or steeling that besides being illegal is counter productive and adds credence to the enemy (the RIAA and company.) We must unite in fortitude and honor not in rhetoric, slander or libel hot air! We must unit and stand against this tyranny. We must stand with right on our side we can not be called hoodlums. We need to stop buying, renting music and videos and stop going to shows. All of us need to do this the sooner we start the sooner they will fall and concede.
April 20th, 2006 at 1:10 am
Gee. Maybe if the mom had and INKLING or a CLUE about what her KIDS WERE DOING ONLINE, this could have been AVOIDED!
Gee, maybe if everyone weren’t so freakin’ EAGER to STEAL from the hard-working musical artists who develop their tunes for us to BUY, this wouldn’t happen.
Grow up and be a responsible consumer!
STOP STEALING!
April 27th, 2006 at 12:15 am
This satirical newspaper did a nice story about the RIAA. Makes a point about where the RIAA is going with all this. Worth a quick look.
http://www.thecalgarytimes.net
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:26 pm
To the dope that works on PCs you can’t have any children or you would know that sometimes they do things that your not aware of, if you look up the kazza website they tell you that there site has a default that automatically put you on a shared file and permits anyone else on that site to upload from your computer. And you don’t have to register in kazza to listen to there FREE LEGAL DOWNLOADING MUSIC that they advertise. I hope your next in line genius.
March 11th, 2007 at 6:20 am
I really want people to know the truth. Downloading music doesn’t hurt the music industry that much, if at all. Let’s say you download a song. Is that really the same as stealing an album? You might only say he or she is stealing the album if he was going to buy the album in the first place. But what if the person had no intention of buying the album at all? Did he really steal? How much more music are we as a culture exposed to because of downloaded music from the internet or listening to burned CDs in a friend’s car? Certainly, more than we would on the radio or tv? This is GOOD for business (and culture) in some ways. Especially for some underground bands (not on MTV) since they can advertise cheaply.
We must remember musicians are ARTISTS. Join the rest of the art world (like writers and painters), most of whom don’t have mansions, multiple vacation houses, and many cars.
And let’s weigh justice properly. How can you sue for $50,000-200,000 for a $10-20 CD or DVD that you didn’t really steal? It’s not like you’re destroying the already produced merchandise. It MIGHT affect sales, but if a Gieco commercial keeps me from buying All-State Insurance, is Gieco stealing from All-State? Even at its WORST, is downloading music any more harmful than shoplifting? or any more dangerous than speeding in a car while talking on a cell phone? I’ve got a ticket for reckless driving once and I was hardly charged $200,000 while facing time in prison! Not to mention we’re talking about a trial in may that involves the actions of a 12-year-old juvenile. Did YOU exercise great judgment as a juvenile?
This is a POLITICAL move by the RIAA (an immoral move if you ask me). Unfortunately, in the US we have a legal system where it’s more practical to sue the weak and defenseless in order to get a court conviction, which the RIAA hopes will be a model for future lawsuits, than it is to pass an act or amendment in the state and federal legislature.
This is a truly nasty tactic that ignores the principals of a free market economy. Modern laissez-faire economics states that if someone can get a product cheaply and easily, they will. I’m sorry if the RIAA might not be making as much money as in the past (they don’t hurt financially as much as they’d like you to believe), but that’s what happens when technology changes. The RIAA wasn’t innovative, so it should either become something else or go out of business instead of focusing of suing individuals. I’ll show the RIAA as much mercy as it would apparently show me!
Please note that NOT all artists are part of or even like the RIAA. The RIAA does NOT represent the whole music industry. In fact, many musicians actively speak against the RIAA and are doing very well.
For the reasons I have listed, I will boycott the RIAA and urge anyone else to do the same. Thank you for your articles and opinions.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:19 am
[...] who’s representing a number of RIAA victims, received from the father of one the RIAA’s latest victims. I am being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement, and the case has been going on for the [...]