James Delahunty
5 Sep 2005 14:40
Some of you may remember that recently we wrote a story about a divorced mom of five, Patricia Santangelo who decided she didn't want to settle with the RIAA and was prepared to fight against the lawsuit in court. Well, the good people over at p2pnet have had a Q&A session with Patricia that will show the P2P community that this woman has absolutely no intent to stand down and settle now.
Here's an extract...
p2pnet: Have you personally heard from the RIAA again since this all began?
Santangelo: I've heard from them once since I went to court in May. It wasn't really the RIAA but the settlement center representing them and I explained to them what Judge McMahon had said in court about me finding an attorney and that I would not be settling with them.
p2pnet: You've already had Pay Us Or Else threats leveled at you. If you lose this case, you could end up facing a lot more than $7,500. What's your reaction to that?
Santangelo: Right now I'm surviving on pure faith that these cases against random IP addresses are wrong and that's all I can think about right now.
p2pnet: If you triumph, and we're sure you will, the Big Four record labels will be in an extremely dangerous position. Their entire terror campaign will collapse around their ears. They've already abandoned several cases for various reasons. Suppose they decide it's not worth risking that you'll win and they decide to drop their charges against you? What then?
Santangelo: Honestly, that would be a relief. But it solves nothing if they can continue doing the same thing to other people like me. I didn't know I was the first person to take it this far. Since hiring Mr Beckerman I've learned a lot, and realize that this isn't just about my case: it's about the legal rights of all the people who are being unfairly sued.
p2pnet: Assuming your case ends up in court, how far are you willing to go?
Santangelo: I'm willing to take it as far as I have to to prevent other innocent people being dragged into frivolous lawsuits. It's wrong.
p2pnet: The record companies say file sharers are devastating them? Does that seem to be a reasonable proposition?
Santangelo: I have three teenage children who love music and I think that's a great thing. I can't count the amount of concert tickets and cds that I've purchased over the past few years, and I still have two younger ones who are showing the same love for music. I find it hard to believe that file sharing could impact record companies to the point of devastation. There are some people, apparently, who copy and sell CDs, and that is piracy and they are the ones that need to be stopped. That's just wrong.