Mom Fights Downloading Suit on Her Own

AP via Yahoo! ^ | Sunday, December 25, 2005 | JIM FITZGERALD

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[AppyPappy]

Chances are they found her because she was making them available for anyone to download. She was distributing copyrighted material.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I think the point is that "she" wasn't doing it.

[R. Scott]

Even if she did not download the material, it was her computer and she is responsible for it’s use. If a guest (or repairman, salesman…) comes into your home and leaves illegal narcotics you are responsible. If a red light camera takes a picture of your car running a red light you are responsible. It’s the easy way out for the courts.

[TexGuy]

FYI and discussion

I "download" stuff to my computer all the time and I never wear a suit. If she wants to wear one then fine but I don't understand why she is fighting with a suit she wears while working on the computer. The suit is an inanimate object and there is no sense in fighting with it.

(Just some quick discussion)

[kjam22]

This is like the parent whose kid charges $5000 on a cell phone saying that they don't owe the bill.

I feel sorry for the lady.... but as they say ... posession is 9/10's of the law.

[penowa]

Santangelo said her biggest issue is with Kazaa for allowing children to download music without parental permission. "I should have gotten at least an e-mail or something notifying me," she said.

Sounds to me like she knows one or more of her 5 children ages 7 - 19 were downloading the music on her computer. How are the people who operate Kazaa supposed to know who is using her computer and tell them to get parental permission? Isn't that the parents' responsibility just the same as it is the parents's responsibility when a child uses the parents' phone to run up a big bill for LD calls?

[CheyennePress]

Screw it. Just buy the music from Russian mp3 sites. Like $1.50 per album or less, and it's legal.

These morons have better things to do than screw moms and college students.

[oceanview]

for the typical american, there is more abuse of your right to privacy in these RIAA cases - then there is with the Patriot Act.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Hm: "Her travail started when the record companies used an investigator to go online and search for copyrighted recordings being made available by individuals. The investigator allegedly found hundreds on her computer on April 11, 2004."

Much is left unsaid about how the investigator determined that the downloaded songs resided on her hard disk. The implication is that the actual files were determined to be on her computer, as compared to her computer being identified by download logs or IP address.

If, then, the files were found on her hard disk by some guy snooping (very easy to do if you're connected directly to a cable or DSL connection without a firewall and haven't buttoned-down your computer's file-sharing), then this raises all sorts of interesting questions. For starters, I thought such trespassing was a second-class Federal felony. If it isn't, it should be.

Meanwhile, IANAL, but it would seem to be established legal precedent that the owner of a device (say, a car) is liable for the misdeeds of anyone using it, so Santangelo's defense that it-wasn't-her-who-did-the-downloads would be a non-starter.

[11Bush]

If the RIAA breaks into a computer using the internet, have they committed a crime? If so, is the RIAA liable for damages and criminal prosecution?

[goldstategop]

I'm glad she decided to fight RIAA and the music industry bullies. You shouldn't agree to never stop doing something you never did in the first place just to avoid being sued. I agree people shouldn't download copyrighted songs without permission but this case isn't about that all; its about RIAA picking on someone they thought wouldn't fight back. It looks like they got more than they bargained for - a victim who is costing them time as well as money. Who says there isn't just in the world? One mom is telling RIAA to shove it.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Theresawithanh]

I'm torn between feeling sorry for her and not trusting that what she says is true. She may have let her kids download music, and her so-called "internet illiteracy" is her excuse. Of course, the kids could have downloaded w/o her knowledge, too, and wouldn't dare tell her.

[kjam22]

You may be right. She may have known all along that her kids were downloading music.

[clee1]

Or, better yet, download them from usenet.

FT-RIAA.

[sirchtruth]

for the typical american, there is more abuse of your right to privacy in these RIAA cases - then there is with the Patriot Act.

That is the best point ever made about this. If the RIAA is going to illegally UL a program to a computer w/out the owner permission, seems as though they are invading someone's privacy and that in itself is illegal.

[Go Gordon]

Her former lawyer, Ray Beckerman, says Santangelo doesn't really need him.

$24,000 later...No wonder lawyers have such a bad reputation

[kjam22]

Yeah....what he means is he knows he isn't going to get paid anymore.... and he has no chance of winning this suit.

[ml/nj]

Months later, there was a phone call from the industry's "settlement center," demanding about $7,500 "to keep me from being named in a lawsuit," Santangelo said.

I think this is usually called extortion.

ML/NJ

[winner3000]

I have so little sympathy for the RIAA, that had I been on the jury I would never convict someone they sued.