Its a long and winding story; The RIAA sued Patricia Santangelo, a mother of two minors accused of filesharing on the internet. Santangelo refused to settle and fought the lawsuit, which the RIAA eventually dropped and replaced with a lawsuit against Santangelo's children (both of which were minors at the time of the alleged copyright infringement, the eldest of which has since turned 18). Failing to properly answer the suit against her, Michelle Santangelo, who was a minor at the time of accusation, has had a default judgment entered against her in the amount of $31,240.
This is an unbelievable situation. I'm totally at a loss to explain how a minor child can end up owing a multi-billion dollar record company over $30,000, but I'm pretty sure it speaks volumes to the inequity of our legal system and the uneven playing field offered to defendants of RIAA lawsuits.
See also:
The RIAA vs. John Doe, a layperson's guide to filesharing lawsuits
RIAA Lawsuit Roundup
RIAA Turns Focus To Kids in Santangelo Case
RIAA Gives up on Santangelo, still aiming for children
Patricia Santangelo Requests Trial vs. RIAA
1. Directv sued 26000 people the same way. They received thousands of default judgements well in excess of $100,000.00 in thousands of cases. These may not have been prople who took anything but rather people who just could not defend the court case.
Posted at 9:06PM on Jan 11th 2007 by gene