Lawsuits from the RIAA are no new news to anyone, and most of us are sick of reading about it (or writing about it). But soon things might make a change because some people are not willing to pay the settlements that the RIAA requests to make lawsuits disappear. For example, one women, Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five children, claims that she knows nothing about downloading or sharing music, and that the likely culprit is possibly one of her kids' friends.
If that is the case, then why should she be forced to fork out thousands of dollars to the recording industry for somebody else's crime? Many experts have dismissed RIAA evidence as it is based only on an IP address to file a lawsuit. Many believe that this is not enough evidence to sustain a lawsuit. We will soon find out how reliable an IP address is as Santangelo's case looks very likely to go ahead to trial.
Also one woman, Tanya Andersen, counter-sued the RIAA for Oregon RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of "outrage", and deceptive business practices. However, it seems the RIAA is happy to continue filing lawsuits to attempt to deter file sharing
Source:
p2pnet
Written by: James Delahunty @ 1 Dec 2005 18:44
