When a 42-year old mother of five was sued by the record industry in 2005, she refused to settle. After being found to have very little knowledge of even how to use a computer, let alone switch one on, the RIAA decided drop its case against her and sued her son Robert and daughter Michelle in a federal court in White Plains. Michelle failed to respond to the lawsuit and has been ordered to pay $30,750 in a default judgment.
Now, Robert has sued the record companies accusing them of violating antitrust laws, wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts and making excessive threats to force defendants to pay. He has raised 32 defences, including that he never distributed copyright music to anyone, that the record companies originally promoted file sharing before going against it and that the music that the music industry claims he downloaded were in fact sourced from his sister's own genuinely bought music CDs. He demands a jury trial and filed a counterclaim against the record companies claiming they damaged his reputation, distracted him from his school work and cost him legal fees.
Hopefully this person will be successful in his fight back, particularly with the music industry’s evil approach to dealing with file sharing ever since they started several years ago. For example, a far more reasonable approach would be to first get the ISPs to send out letters to those sharing out music to let the the subscribers know that they could face legal action if they continue, then have their Internet connection account suspended or restricted if they continue and only then consider legal action if they still continue, since by then those who share out content illegally would be well aware that what they are doing is wrong.
Thanks to RTV71 for letting us know about this news.
