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Santangelos want $8 million from AOL, Sharman

15 September 2007 19:14 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 7 comments

Members of the Santangelo family, sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for alleged copyright infringement by sharing music on P2P networks, have called for AOL, Sharman Networks (which offers the Kazaa P2P software) and Matthew Seckler to be added as third-party defendants to the case. Michelle and Robert Santangelo face an RIAA lawsuit from Elektra Records.

They are demanding $3,966,000 from both AOL and Sharman and $1 from Seckler, who apparently installed the Kazaa software on their computer. This could potentially set a precedence where other P2P defendants point the finger of blame at their ISPs or the providers of file sharing software.

"The Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs deny that they or either of them are guilty of Plaintiffs' allegations and affirmatively allege that the injuries sustained by Plaintiffs, if any, were solely caused by reason of the negligence and breaches of the Third-Party Defendants named herein: in the defective design of Sharman Network's program, "Kazaa" which was a dangerous instrumentality in its each and every use as it existed in 2002-2004; the trespassing and reckless installation by Matthew Seckler of such program; the failure to warn by AOL and Sharman; the failure to block the downloading of such files by AOL; the improper blocking of alleged (RIAA) warning messages by AOL and Sharman; and, the secretive file sharing system of and by Kazaa."

It is alarming to see AOL being challenged for not filtering / blocking content on the Internet.

Source:
Wired

Permalink to this article

Santangelos settle with RIAA after long battle (29 April 2009)

AOL outsources to Unbox (3 December 2007)

Children sued by RIAA try to bring Sharman with them (16 August 2007)

RIAA lawsuit target prevails in court (11 April 2007)

RIAA's case against New York woman faltering (22 March 2007)

Teen files lawsuit against record industry (31 January 2007)

RIAA wins judgement from 20 year old girl (13 January 2007)

RIAA files 751 more lawsuits (15 December 2005)

Patricia Santangelo requests trial by jury in RIAA suit (3 December 2005)

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Discuss this article!
evilh0ly (Senior Member) 15 September 2007 21:29
wow, that is just sheer greed on their part. 1 million from the guy who istalled Kazaa on their computer, that's just absurd, and it gives Americans bad rep on board. Another litigious American. [ + quote]
jimmer (Newbie) 15 September 2007 21:31
cool, if i get caught downloading something illegal, i'll just blame it on my isp..... :\| [ + quote]
ChiknLitl (Member) 15 September 2007 22:05
*Originally posted by evilh0ly:* wow, that is just sheer greed on their part. 1 million from the guy who istalled Kazaa on their computer, that's just absurd, and it gives Americans bad rep on board. Another litigious American. I believe it was one dolllar from the guy who installed the software. It's an interesting defense but still a cop out [ + quote]
H0bbes (Junior Member) 16 September 2007 10:39
One dollar!! LOL!!! A whole dollar!!! :-p [ + quote]
aone (Newbie) 16 September 2007 10:46
lame. boo. sue the RIAA. now they're just screwing with everyone. <_< [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 18 September 2007 4:29
This is a new spin on the whole p2p aspect of things. [ + quote]
agwild99 (Newbie) 24 September 2007 8:38
Odd tactics, but I imagine they may be effective. When losing the battle bring in the Big Guns to fight for you! $1?? this is almost a joke, but it does get one more person involved in the fight. It may seem like a no brainer to pay the dollar and get out of it, but if he does that he is assuming some of the liability in the case and then can be drug into the larger suit by the RIAA. If he is smart he will fight this. Although it would cost him a butt load of money to hire a lawyer, it will be cheaper in the longrun. [ + quote]