3 February 2007, 03:35
Labels countersued by a teenager
The Santangelo kid sued by the RIAA for file-sharing is countersuing the recording industry for “violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats” (Associated Press).
This story has been going on for a few years now. Robert Santangelo, now 16 years old was 11 when the alleged piracy took place. He denies any wrongdoing and claims it’s impossible to prove anything anyway.
Robert is the son of Patti Santangelo, a mom of 5 sued by the RIAA in 2005. She refused to pay the settlement. The case drew a lot of public attention and the industry finally dropped the case against her. Instead 2 of the Santangelo children are being sued now – 16 year old Robert and his sister Michelle, now 20.
Robert defends himself by claiming that “he never sent copyrighted music to others, that the recording companies promoted file sharing before turning against it, that average computer users were never warned that it was illegal, that the statute of limitations has passed, and that all the music claimed to have been downloaded was actually owned by his sister on store-bought CDs” (Associated Press).
Apart from raising defenses Santagelo is also countersuing the labels and claims that "ostensibly competitors in the recording industry, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and public policy" by bringing the piracy cases jointly and using the same agency "to make extortionate threats ... to force defendants to pay."
Read more:
Teen accuses record companies of collusion, Associated Press
Santangelo Teenager Files Countersuit Against RIAA, Digital Music News
Teen Sues Major Labels For Collusion, Hypebot
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Comments 23
1. by magnitude, 3 February 2007, 15:45
Good for Him. These companies largely ignored the electronic transfer of music and then stood on the shore throwing rocks at the ship they had missed. I have first hand, personal experience of record companies, having worked as a professional musician and a retailer. I spoke directly to the chief of an extremely well known record company in 1994 about the future of music retailing and his comment was that the internet, as a medium for transmission, will never pose a threat.
Poor complacenet executive. This has to be the only industry where someone can come up with a product, borrow the money to create and promote it, then let the lender own the product whilst paying back the money they borrowed to create it in the first place. Surely that can't be legal?
2. by Squee, 4 February 2007, 13:06
For the love of god I hope this kid wins. The RIAA could use a setback or three.
I just hope that the outcome comes to more than that class action lawsiut a few years back over the price fixing of CD's, I'm so glad I got my $5 back (never mind that I was price gouged nearly that much per CD I had bought in that time period). The worst part, CD's still cost the same today.
3. by Jordan, 4 February 2007, 21:25
Good for him man. Why pick on him when thousands of people do it. I hope he wins and they have to pay him.
4. by Lee, 5 February 2007, 04:20
Never did get any money back for price gouging. And I own over 500 physical cd's since dec 1990. And even the BMG music club cd's , have prices that are thru the roof. (except for yourmusic)
5. by boyd, 5 February 2007, 04:40
i do hope he wins. the companys that control the music also produce the hardware and software to copy ( sorry backup) so how can they complain.
6. by cpeete, 5 February 2007, 10:14
I have to agree with the first poster. I have a family friend that used to work in music industry. I remember him telling me in 1997 or 1998 that a consultant made a presentation to them that the Internet would be the new way to distribute music. I imagine by then they had to know what was on the horizon. Well, Napster came along shortly thereafter and as they say the rest is history.
7. by dave, 5 February 2007, 20:59
The RIAA are evil. What kind of sick capitalist bastards would sue an 11 year old kid!?
8. by cmoney, 5 February 2007, 22:17
Dam record companies make so much freaking money and same with the musicians. Someone tell them to quit crying about pirated music and go on tour lazy bastards. we were price gouged forever on cd's and we found a cheaper way of getting it. For all I care they can all go to hell. I am gunna bootleg all my music for the rest of my life.
9. by (Anonymous), 6 February 2007, 12:21
are any of you guys having problems paying allofmp3 by credit card?
is the site down in the US?
I can get to the site and browse + login but not pay.
anyone?
10. by Pete, 6 February 2007, 20:39
This kid is my fucking hero! I mean seriously, this is one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. He deserves to have the entire nation backing him for this.
Oh, and to Anonymous, pay by Xrost. You get a 10% bonus anyway (on top of the bonus from AllofMp3), so it's more value for money, and just as easy. The site isn't down in the US, it's just that the credit card companies got bullied into not allowing payments through to AllofMp3.
11. by allofmp3 problems, 6 February 2007, 20:49
The credit card part has been out for a while.
To put money into your account go to xrost.biz go to Click & Buy - use the same password & sign in as allofmp3 as it will recognise it.
Buy a gift card(its not a real card but a serial number & pin ) making sure you get both numbers go back to allofmp3 go to your balance and click on gift card - put in your main number & your pin & the money will transfer automatically.
It is really easy
12. by Jimbo, 7 February 2007, 03:31
I have hundreds of records/albums/LPs whatever you like to call them.
I started collecting in the early 70s so most of these are on vinyl.
I also bought some of the same albums on compact cassette for playing in the car.
Then I bought even more of them again on CD.
So in lots of cases I've paid the royalties 2, 3 or more times if you count greatest hits etc.
So on some of the other albums I've been looking for a low cost way of getting a good copy of albums I already own.
I can understand paying record companies etc. their physical production costs, but why should I pay all the other costs again and again and again?
And when you see record companies giving away CDs with newspapers etc. you have to wonder what value they put on their back catalogues.
But of course they are willing to make us pay again and again for the same tracks.
13. by cybnetic, 7 February 2007, 04:40
huurryaayy for the little guy!!! I hope he wins! we all need to stand up just like this and tell those blankers where to go with all thier crap! down with controlled music!!
14. by billy, 8 February 2007, 13:44
ahh regards to payment methods!well unless you have one of the only two types of creditcards accepted yer screwed, because even if you purchase a gift voucher, "yup its with one of the only 2 credit cards!!! get the picture yup im screwed too!! any help on this allofmp3.
15. by Stupid ALLOFMP3 comment, 8 February 2007, 16:39
Well apparently you can't be too techically inclined and comment here because I just tried listing ALL the format Itunes uses and converts to and was routed to a page that said THIS IS SPAM.
Thanks AllOfMP3, you might want to work on that filter some!!
16. by Chris, 11 February 2007, 14:31
PAYMENT PROBLEMS - NOW NO XFROST.
I have no Diners or JCB card, so I cannot see anyway around this. Read via google news that we may be losing this site this time around or it's going to be taken over by a big corporate with their inflated prices.
Not happy!
17. by xray, 12 February 2007, 07:27
I wish I had dropped another $1000 here before the credit cards went belly up! Good luck to allofmp3 - it's been real, guys. I'll keep checking back - I hope we can do business again someday soon.
18. by christuffer, 12 February 2007, 16:21
Best wishes to you. Hope you can get this issue resolved.
Best website on the internet!!!
Good luck guys.
19. by brushstroke, 13 February 2007, 18:55
What's up with XROST then? Any clues?
20. by JakeVanDamme, 14 February 2007, 02:16
Please get credit card p[ayments on this site working pleeeese!!!!!!!
21. by kilzo, 18 February 2007, 20:29
Diners Club?? JCB???? If they can't do the major cards, why can't allofmp3 use PayPal or something?
22. by Get your gift vouchers here...When available that is., 3 April 2007, 23:00
http://aom3.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Worked for me, almost instant.
23. by Peter Silver, 26 March 2008, 04:09
The RIAA has obviously had to take this very seriously because it could drive a coach and horses through their current practice of finding some poor shmuck and frightening the life out of him, it was inevitable that one day someone would bite back.
The record companies have for years produced sub-standard recordings and pre-recorded tapes of highly dubious quality and even did their best to get a tax put on blank cassettes.
What they fail to understand is that as well as conferring rights, intellectual property also carries with it responsibilities, namely to act reasonably towards their customers and having ripped them off for years and having been too dim to appreciate the full implications of the digital age when their customers have the means to take what they want in such a way that they can never keep up, they are all running around like headless chickens.
And what do these idiots do to engender the support of those they've been ripping off for years, yeah you've got it, they threaten to sue and bankrupt them, can you imagine any other business (apart from the film business) being so utterly inept?
Even sites like iTunes charge too much, where's the packaging? where's the overhead of storage? where are the shop overheads? where are the pressing costs? where are the printing costs? we know where the rip-off is!