Last year, Patricia Santangelo who was a victim of one of the RIAA's lawsuits refused to settle her case for $7,500 claiming she did not store or share music on her computer, let alone run filing sharing software on it. As a result, the five record companies represented by the RIAA have given up on this computer illiterate parent and have decided to file lawsuits against her son Robert & daughter Michelle in a federal court in White Plains. According to the suit, Michelle acknowledged downloading music on the family computer and Robert's friend gave statements that suggest Robert was also a culprit. The two were accused of downloading and sharing over 1,000 songs.
It appears that the two children involved in file sharing hid their action by relying on their mother to repetitively protest her innocence, since she was the one originally served the lawsuit. So far, defenders of Internet freedom have helped pay for her attorney and she even tried showing her innocence on television. Patricia mentioned she does not recall either of her children downloading music and her lawyer disputes the RIAA's allegations saying that he does not recall even Michelle admitting downloading music while being questioned. The RIAA is requesting to have unspecified damages paid for each download made along with court costs.
This case clearly shows that even if one is not the account owner of an Internet connection, all it may do is delay the time it takes for the person to get sued for illegal file sharing.
Thanks to Bryan for letting us know about this news.
