Michelle Santangelo Sues Kazaa, AOL And Anyone Else She Can Think Of For Her Getting Sued By The RIAA
from the questionable-lawsuits dept
We've been following the story of Patti Santangelo and her family's fight against the RIAA for some time -- but the latest moves by the Santangelo family seem a bit scattershot. Santangelo, of course, was one of the first people to fight back against a bogus RIAA lawsuit. This was fantastic, as many others simply settled, rather than going through the trouble of fighting the questionable charges (especially in cases where parents were sued for the actions of their kids). A year and a half later, the RIAA finally admitted it didn't have any evidence against Patti Santangelo and dropped the case (and tried to get out of paying her legal fees), but then quickly sued her kids instead. This wasn't a huge surprise. The RIAA had been secretly investigating her kids for some time. However, the response of the kids has been a bit questionable. Patti's son Robert's response included every argument in the book against the RIAA -- including a number of weak ones that could hurt his case more than help it. There are a few strong arguments that can be used against the RIAA. Including a bunch of very weak ones probably doesn't help. Now, Patti's daughter Michelle is taking a similarly broad approach, not in responding to the RIAA, but in blaming everyone she can possibly think of for the fact that she was sued by the RIAA. She's filed lawsuits against Kazaa, AOL and the guy who installed Kazaa on her computer, saying they were all complicit in getting her to share copyrighted content, without warning her of the consequences. This is an incredibly weak argument that hasn't gotten very far in the past. This lawsuit just makes it look like she doesn't want to take responsibility for her own actions.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: kazaa, liability, music, riaa, santangelo
Companies: aol, kazaa, riaa
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Say what?
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Re: Say what?
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Of course, that is all speculation. But, probably not far from the truth.
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Well what a surprise..
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Re: Well what a surprise..
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Now that I think about it though, does anybody actually like kazaa or aol? Although I agree the suits are ridiculous, I say sue away.
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Re:
The older I get, the more I realize how quickly women will stab you in the back. =D
I want a Japanese sexbot! NOW!
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Re: Re:
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Accountability
Isn't this why we don't allow minors to enter into contracts? I'm not talking about teens violating laws they clearly understand (although we don't punish them using adult standards). I am saying that expecting kids to take responsibility in the same way in which we expect adults to do so is a bit ridiculous.
A "cease and desist" demand, along with making the kid delete their ill-gotten music collection, is reasonable. Suing kids for ridiculous, unrealized damages is, as someone noted above, "evil".
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9th graders
I've got a better idea; give away low-fidelity 96K songs as a teaser, and sell me 256K versions that I can play on any player. Duh!
I wonder how long it will take the ninth-graders at RIAA to figure this one out.
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Don't apply real-world logic to this...
By joining two deep pocket parties, she likely stands a much better chance of keeping any eventual settlement on her part to a minimum. In my view, it's a business decision, not a personality one.
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Re: suing the cable company
Maybe Mike Vick should sue God for creating dogs!
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yeah, mostly - of course they are professional Racketeers, who give generous kickbacks to politicians... So go figure.. :)
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RESPONSIBILITY
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the best
yeah, I believe it....or not.
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Re: the best
Therefore, the way I read this is "trespassing and reckless installation" = "he downloaded the software and installed it without my approval or knowledge"
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Santangelo Sues Kazaa, AOL And Anyone Else
Maychic
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