If you’ve ever thought of downloading music or videos illegaly, please think twice. The RIAA are really out on a witch hunt and they don’t care who gets hit. Even the deceased are not safe.
Take for example the case of Elektra vs. Santangelo. The case against Patricia Santangelo was dropped yesterday by the five companies that sued her. As Judge Collen MacMahon so eloquently put it, Santangelo is an “Internet-illiterate parent, who does not know Kazaa from kazoo.” The motion filed though was to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning that they can sue her again.
The sad part is that the reason that they dropped the charges against her is that they now have testimony from her daughter Michelle, who is now 20, and her son, Robert, aged 16, that they did download and share files with friends online 4 years ago. These testimony were given on behalf of their mom to prove her innocence and these are now being used against them.
Patricia Santangelo asks, why punish the downloaders? Shouldn’t the people who made the item available for download be the one punished? Some people really wouldn’t know if they were downloading from an illegal source.
The answer: just like with drugs, the punishment is for bith the pusher and the user. If you can’t distinguish between a legal download and pirating digital content, better stick to buying the CD from a record shop instead. Ignorance will not protect you from the law.
[tags] law,piracy,RIAA,case dismissed,music,sharing files,peer to peer,Kazaa [/tags]