Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

First RIAA Lawsuit to Head to Trial

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the take-a-number dept.

mamer-retrogamer writes "Out of 14,800 lawsuits the RIAA has filed in the past two years, none have gone to court - until now. Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five living in Wappingers Falls, New York, found herself the target of an RIAA lawsuit and vows to contest it. Santangelo claims that she knows nothing about downloading music online and the likely culprit is not her but a friend's child who used her computer. The RIAA disagrees."

9 of 616 comments (clear)

  1. Song choices by jimmyhat3939 · · Score: 5, Funny
    I think, perhaps, the criminal authorities should be pursuing this poor woman, for her choices of music to download:

    • Lit "Happy"
    • Incubus "Nowhere fast"
    • Third Eye Blind "Semi-Charmed Life"
    • UB40 "Can't Help Falling in Love"
    • Godsmack "Whatever"
    • Foo Fighters "Breakout"

    What? No Limp Bizkit? No Britney Spears? No Kanye West?

    --
    Free Conference Call -- No Spam, High Quality
  2. Re:My congratulations... by Seumas · · Score: 5, Funny

    I congratulate you on being the first person I've ever seen who compared illegally downloading music to rape

    You must be new here.

  3. Re:Juries can judge the law by dada21 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Juries are meant to be composed of one's peers -- people from the community who know the defendant. They should not be hand picked or completely neutral.

    A jury can then judge the crime, the law AND the defendant as they'll know all 3.

  4. Re:I'd like to see this go to a jury. by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just not on a female mother of five. If she were a male, they definitely would screw him over.

    A male mother of five has bigger problems than the RIAA.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  5. Re:I'd like to see this go to a jury. by BKX · · Score: 3, Funny

    Except that if they do it enough times, they'll find themselves involved in a SLAPP lawsuit. That's the real beauty. The RIAA gets one chance to win and maybe an appeal or two but after that, it will appear that they are appealling to bankrupt the defendant by continuous appeals (rather than appealling because there was a real error) and will be sued for SLAPP violations, which they will lose. And then the RIAA will be out real money and the woman will be very rich. That's why they won't appeal but once to each court they can. But you can bet that it'll be good.

  6. The RIAA better hope.. by Hohlraum · · Score: 4, Funny
    that she doesn't use the dreaded Chewbacca defense.


            Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, Chef's attorney would certainly want you to believe that his client wrote "Stinky Britches" ten years ago. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself!

            But ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: Ladies and gentlemen, this [pointing to a picture of Chewbacca] is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! (Background: Damnit! What? He's using the Chewbacca defense!) Why would a Wookiee -- an eight foot tall Wookiee -- want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

            But more important, you have to ask yourself, what does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense.

            Look at me, I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca. Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense. None of this makes sense!

            And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberating and conjugating the Emancipation Proclamation... Does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense.

            If Chewbacca lived on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_Defense (actually it was only on a google cache version)
  7. It's not piracy! by MarkByers · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go after the people selling the pirated music!

    Just because its ridiculously expensive doesn't mean that you can call it 'pirated music'. Jeez, people these days call anything at all 'piracy'.

    The correct term for this crime is 'price-fixing'.

    --
    I'll probably be modded down for this...
  8. Re:I'd like to see this go to a jury. by lightspawn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Two words: pro bono. There are tons of lawyers out there itching like mad to take this case.

    I thought pro bono meant you were for extending copyrights indefinitely.

  9. Re:I'd like to see this go to a jury. by Smallpond · · Score: 3, Funny

    Imagine a non-technical jury trying to follow this:

    This woman stole our IP.

    How do you know?

    Because her ISP gave us her IP.