Elektra v. Santangelo (2005) was a case heard before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, filed by Elektra Entertainment Group as one of approximately 13,000 lawsuits that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has brought against individual defendants in the U.S.[1] The suit alleged that Patricia (Patti) Santangelo, a single mother of five based in Wappingers Falls, New York, infringed the copyright of several companies by sharing six songs on the KaZaA file-sharing network. The RIAA sought to dismiss the case "without prejudice" but the Court denied the motion, saying that the RIAA could either dismiss the case with prejudice or proceed to trial. The RIAA also sued 2 of Ms. Santangelo's children. A default judgment was entered against one of them, Michelle Santangelo. Ms. Santangelo's 16 year old son Robert Santangelo has interposed counterclaims against the plaintiffs, including "failure to warn".
p2pnet.net, whose readers raised a total of more than $15,000 to help Mrs Santangelo with her legal expenses, ran an interview with her in 2005.[2] In it, she declared, "Don’t let your fear of these massive companies allow you to deny your belief in your own innocence. Paying these settlements is an admission of guilt. If you’re not guilty of violating the law, don’t pay."
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Elektra offered to settle the case for $7,500, but Mrs. Santangelo rejected the offer. She says that she didn't realize that her computer contained KaZaA software, and that the KaZaA account name listed in the suit had never been used by anyone in her family; the name was said to be "similar" to the screen name of a teenage friend of one of her children.[3]
One frequently cited criticism of the RIAA's lawsuits is that they use an assembly line approach to lawsuits, trying to get the same result in every case no matter the evidence, trying to carry out the lawsuits and settlements in the most efficient way, and acting as if lawsuits are a standard part of business. This case is somewhat notable because the judge, the Honorable Colleen McMahon,[4] appears to agree with some of those criticisms in a dialog with Mike Maschio, an RIAA attorney:
Mrs. Santangelo originally appeared in court without a lawyer. She was later represented by Ray Beckerman of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.[5] For a brief period she appeared pro se again, and since then has been represented by Jordan Glass of Valhalla, New York. Her former lawyer Beckerman commented "I'm sure she's going to win. I don't see how they could win. They have no case. They have no evidence she ever did anything."[6]
During the proceedings for their Motion to Dismiss, after the oral argument of the motion, the RIAA's lawyers asked for a second oral argument. According to Ray Beckerman this was unusual:[7]
The RIAA contends that illegally shared files were found on a computer with an IP address connected to Ms. Santangelo, and that this is sufficient grounds for continuing to pursue the lawsuit. In a CNN American Morning interview, Miles O'Brien discussed the case with Ms. Santangelo and RIAA President Cary Sherman.[8] The following excerpts from a transcript of the interview summarize the RIAA's position:[9]
The offer to "modify the complaint" appears to place the burden of proof on Ms. Santangelo to establish her innocence by naming someone else. Otherwise, the RIAA response does not acknowledge Ms. Santangelo's contention that no one in her family was involved in the purported file-sharing, and therefore it would be unclear what lesson could be learned by a "family event" settlement.
A motion to dismiss has been filed, stating that "the Courts have consistently required specific acts of copying, and the dates and times of those acts", and the complainant isn't providing those. The plaintiff's response[10] is that the specific files were listed,[11] and that specific times of violations aren't needed, because there is "an ongoing and continuous infringement". This is in conflict with Mrs. Santangelo's statements on the record that the computer's disk has been reformatted because of "a lot of major viruses", and that her ex-husband is now in possession of the computer.[12] RIAA then made the unusual request to have a second oral argument session and to submit an additional surreply.[7] The motion to dismiss the case was denied on 28 November 2005.[13]
Elektra later requested that this case be dismissed and, instead, proceeded to file suits against Santangelo's son and daughter (Robert and Michelle) based on evidence obtained during the original proceedings. According to legal documents Michelle Santagelo did not respond to this case and a default judgment of $30,750 was approved in favor of Elektra/RIAA.
Robert, however, has not settled. He is also represented by Jordan Glass and is raising 32 defenses including arguments that he didn't send copyrighted files to others, the recording companies originally promoted file sharing, the statute of limitations had passed, and that all of the music on his computer had been owned on CD by his sister. He is counter-suing the record companies for violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts, and making extortionate threats.[14]
On April 9, 2007, a stipulation of discontinuance with prejudice was entered, which means that Santangelo is the prevailing party and therefore eligible to file a motion to recover attorneys' fees.[15]