p2p news / p2pnet: Yesterday we ran the story of another RIAA attack on an American family.

RIAA owners Warner Music (USA), EMI (UK), Sony BMG (Japan, Germany) and Vivendi Universal (France) are trying to claim they’re being ruined by file sharers, whom they call criminals and thieves although no crime has been committed, and nothing has been stolen.

The assertion has been shown up time and time again as complete fabrication, but it’s nonetheless repeated in the mainstream media just as though it’s an accurate statement from reliable sources.

The Pennsylvania Trojan family is currently being terrorized (word used advisedly) by the Big Four Organized Music cartel and Jim Trojan says he’s in much the same situation as New York’s Patti Santangelo.

It’s been estimated that well over 60 million Americans have shared online. The RIAA has subpoenaed more than 18,000 people, including young children, but matched against the total number of US file sharers, the number barely computes. It is, however, enough to allow the corporate press to suggest significant numbers have been ‘prosecuted’ when in fact, no one has ever been found guilty of anythihg, or even appeared in a civil court. Santangelo will in fact be the first.

However, she won’t be defending herself against a crime, or for having allegedly done something “illegal”. Rather, she’ll be telling a jury of her peers that, contrary to RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) claims, she hasn’t infringed on someone’s copyright, a far cry from some imaginary ‘crime’.

Jim Trojan is in the same position. And there are other similarities.

Like Santangelo, he and his wife, Regina, have five children, like Santangelo, he says he’s being wrongly attacked and, like Santangelo, he can’t afford a lawyer.

Here, in his own words, is a summary of his story so far.

My case seems to have started out by receiving the same Copyright Infringement accusations as others I’ve read and heard about.

I first was being accused as a John Doe along with approximately 250 others in the same suit which came from California, then somehow it went to the District of Columbia with a subpoena from Verizon and this vicious nightmare began and now, it is still going on for over two years and it has still not ended !

I received papers from a lawfirm in California that I was being sued for copyright infringement so I called them and they wanted me to pay $4,500 within 90 days or they would take me to court and it could possibly cost me $750.00 a song and there were 997 songs that I supossedly downloaded and distributed.

I had no idea what they were talking about I actually thought it was a scam.

Then I was served papers from a large law firm in Philadelphia, Pepper and Hamilton, telling me i was being sued. That was the summer of July, 2004. I called them and they said I should call a settlement group in California, or get a lawyer because this was serious bussiness and no joke, of coarse they wanted $4,500 as well.

I contacted a lawyer and they wanted a $5,000 retainer just to start the proceedings.

Since then I have been been through six different law firms and multiple lawyers in each firm trying to break me down to settle this case for $4,500.

I have stacks of papers from each firm and multiple phone calls from them to settle this case or else.

At this point, I’m not sure what to do but I knew one thing, I did nothing wrong and now principal has taken over.

My family and I were falsely being accused.

I have five children two sets of twins and a single in the middle, over the past year they have deposed all five of my children, and my wife and myself, causing a lot of stress to me and my family to the point of harassment.

After every deposition they pulled me aside and of course wanted me to settle.

The funny part is that even after two years of all this BULL, they were still willing to settle for around the same amount of money. What a Scam. I cannot believe that the supreme court hasn’t thrown this out of court. It is an invasion of my personnel privacy.

What they should do is go after the groups that put this music on the internet for children to listen to for FREE as KAZAA advertises.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the RIAA didn’t developed these groups just to suck innocent people into this major scam. I was in Federal court January 5 and the Judge was Judge Cynthia M. Rufe who listened to both sides.

When she heard that my MINOR child was listening to music she then suggested to the lawyers that they go back to the group and come back with a reasonable settlement, not $4,500. She said it’s not like they were looking at kiddy porn or trying to make bombs or something.

They paid no attention to a word she said and continued their constant harassment.

Since then, Pepper Hamilton withdew from the case and so did the Shook Hardy and Bacon Group from Kansas City and the four Lawyers who represented them.

They then passed it onto a new group in Denver Colorado, and they’re now harassing me.

Do you see a pattern working here?

They get their money out of the RIAA like a bunch of low life bottom feeders and pass it on to the next group.

As it stands now, I’m waiting to hear back from the Federal Court as to when a trial can be set up sometime in May 2006.

The latest is lawyer Geoffrey Beachaump, who I found out has something to do with legislation on Internet Security, asked for a leave from the court to file a report, and there’s something mentioned about a national counsel, now.

I have to tell you that I’m not feeling real comfortable about the whole deal since I’m defending myself and I don’t know all of the rules and regulations of the court of law.

I’m hoping that being honest and telling the truth can actually prevail in this crocked sick society that we have to live in.

Sincerly James J. Trojan

Thanks, Jim.

Are there any lawyer out there who may be able to help him and his family?

Meanwhile, stay tuned.

Also See:
another RIAA attack - RIAA targets new family of 5, April 13, 2006
Patti Santangelo - Patti Santangelo fund nears $11.5K, March 5, 2006

This entry was posted on Friday, April 14th, 2006 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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