Patricia Santangelo is the single mother from White Plains, NY, who is fighting the RIAA lawsuit laid at her doorstep. She is the first of about 14,000 sued individuals to refuse to settle and claim her determination to fight the case to the end. P2PNet tracked her down for a Q&A—it's a must read. P2PNet's bias is a given, and the interviewer (John Newton) states his faith that Santangelo will prevail in court. Joe Gratz thinks the labels basically have no infringement case to take to court; if he is correct, that explains why the RIAA's bullying "settlement office" pushes people so hard to settle. However, the unfortunate probability is that the RIAA wil drop the case before it reaches court if, indeed, it stands on shaky legal ground. A high-profile case won by the defendant would encourage people like this poor fellow, whose computing situation seems to defy the charges, to fight back instead of succumbing to intimidation and settling. In fact, it's not too much to speculaste that a Santangelo victory (a real court victory, not a mere RIAA abandonment of the case) would bring down the whole RIAA lawsuit campaign like a house of cards.

My prediction: the RIAA will never let this case go to court. Cary Sherman and Mitch Bainwol will issue sanctimonious statements about Santangelo being a 1-in-14,000 aberration, and that the RIAA lawsuits were never meant to target innocent computer users. The story will be buried and forgotten within days, and future victims will never know about it. But two rays of light glint through this dark forecast. First, many other individuals have not resolved their cases, though nobody is standing up with Santangelo's courage and determination. If a few of them hear about the Santangelo case, a little momentum might develop. Second, Santangelo's lawyer sees opportunity here, and might start treating RIAA lawsuits like an ambulance chaser, converting desperate and unaware individuals to hopeful causes one by one.