James Delahunty
31 Jan 2007 13:02
A New York teen has filed a lawsuit against the record industry for defamation, violating anti-trust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has called this kid a pirate and so the five record companies filed a lawsuit against him. Robert Santangelo would have been 11 when the alleged offense was committed.
He has denied sharing music with P2P file sharing networks and has said it is "impossible" for the RIAA to prove otherwise. He claims in his defense that any music the RIAA alleged that he pirated, he already owned himself on a store-bought retail CD. Robert and his lawyer, Jordan Glass, have demanded a jury trial and filing a counterclaim against the companies for allegedly damaging the boy's reputation, distracting him from school and costing him legal fees.
"The record companies have engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United States," the court documents say. The teen says that the record companies are acting together in violation of the antitrust laws by bringing the piracy cases jointly and using the same agency "to make extortionate threats ... to force defendants to pay."
Source:
The Inquirer