The RIAA Loses Another File-Sharing Case

PassablyNews.com ^ | 4/10/07

[LibWhacker]

A federal judge has dismissed Elektra v. Santangelo with prejudice, leaving the door open for defendant Patti Santangelo to recover attorneys' fees from the RIAA. Last month, Judge Colleen McMahon denied the RIAA's motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, ruling that the case should either be dismissed with prejudice or proceed to trial so that Santangelo could have a shot at being exonerated of the RIAA's accusations of file-sharing and copyright infringement.

A stipulation of discontinuance with prejudice was entered yesterday by both the plaintiffs and defendants, which means that Santangelo is the prevailing party and therefore eligible to file a motion to recover attorneys' fees. It is anticipated that the RIAA will strongly oppose any such award of fees, as they have in Capitol v. Foster.

Patti Santangelo was targeted by the RIAA in 2005 as part of its crackdown against suspected file-sharing. The divorced mother of five denied engaging in file sharing herself or having any knowledge of its happening in her house. The RIAA subsequently sued two of her children, Michelle and Robert, who were 15 and 11 years old when the alleged infringement took place.

The dismissal strikes another blow against the music industry's doctrine of secondary infringement. It's an argument that the record labels have consistently made in their lawsuits: if a defendant has "a reason to know" of any infringing activity, he or she should therefore be liable for any and all infringement—even if the defendant was not aware of it. So far, the courts have not found the argument convincing, which could lead to still more dismissals. Ruling in Capitol v. Foster, Judge Lee R. West called the record labels' secondary infringement claims "untested and marginal."

This is a scenario the RIAA has been anxious to avoid. Although the record industry has been eager to file lawsuits, it never wants to see the defendants exonerated, even when it's a clear case of mistaken identity. Instead, it would rather just quietly drop unwinnable cases and walk away, leaving defendants to deal with the legal bills from defending against a case that should never have been brought. For at least the second time, a judge has prevented the RIAA from doing exactly that. If the trend continues, the music industry's legal strategy could end up being far more expensive than it anticipated.

[Señor Zorro]

I’ve always loved that cartoon.

[Señor Zorro]

They should be hit with the costs for their trivial lawsuits.

What they seem to want is a judicial equivalent of a “heads I win, tails you lose” coin toss.

[zeugma]

Clippy meets vi, then both are swallowed by Emacs

[rzeznikj at stout]

I actually get it now that I’ve been using vi quite a bit...

[rzeznikj at stout]

For whatever reason, I didn’t catch on to Emacs—a lot in pico (with my Unix class), and vi at work...

I should probably learn how to at least do basic stuff in Emacs though...

[Still Thinking]

This is a good start. I won’t be completely happy till the defendants get trebled RICO damages, since this is clearly a scam.

[zeugma]

I'm not really an emacs guy either. vi(m) is definitely my preferred editor. 

I do prefer emacs command line editing (set -o emacs) though. 

[Leatherneck_MT]

Good, hope these maggots get taken to the cleaners.

[antiRepublicrat]

I’m happy for the lady, but I’m even happier for later victims, as now precedent has been set twice. No more free ride for the copyright cartel in its abuses of our justice system.

[rzeznikj at stout]

I haven’t done command-line editing yet...8^)

[AFPhys]

What RIAA is doing is not much different than what Nifong did to the Duke laCrosse players. They create lawsuits without sufficient evidence to prosecute.
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Don’t forget how the race baiters and the FRAUDcasters and the Duke,et al “intelligensia” supported them. This is SO much like the way the intelligensia has hopped on the global alarmist bandwagon, too... Must suppress all evidence to the effect that they’re not seeing and acting rationally.