N.Y. mom to fight RIAA

Like many parents of file-sharers, I suspect, this one didn't even know what Kazaa was until she was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). But there are a couple of unusual things about the case of Patricia Santangelo, single mother of five between the ages of 6 and 19: 1) She says the name on the lawsuit is a friend of her children's (using Kazaa at her house), and 2) she's actually going to court with this case, reports TheJournalNews.com, a paper in the New York City area. The article offers some good context and raises some interesting legal questions (e.g., a lawyer who has defended about 15 clients in similar lawsuits saying that the record companies' case is weak because they're "suing people who made songs available to others, whether or not there is any proof they ever illegally copied a song," and he claims there's no copyright infringement without copying). Despite the suing of more than 13,000 US file-sharers (or their parents) to date, this is a legal area that hasn't been tested in the courts. The vast majority have settled out of court with the help of the RIAA's settlement center, "which was designed to facilitate Internet users' paying penalties to the record companies before they were sued. Santangelo said the settlement center bullied her, trying to get her to accept a settlement offer" for her to pay $7,500. This case will go to US District Judge Colleen McMahon, who said she "would love to see a mom fighting one of these." See an earlier story about a family in Ohio suing a P2P service for being sued by the RIAA. [Thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this story out.]