[Infowarrior] - Teen accuses record companies of collusion

[Richard Forno]

 Teen accuses record companies of collusion
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_hi_te/music_download_suit&printer=
1;_ylt=Aijd9MjVCU0UAqGPy_m8WrBk24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press WriterWed Jan 31, 12:46 AM ET

A 16-year-old boy being sued by five record companies accusing him of online
music piracy accused the recording industry on Tuesday of violating
antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate
threats.

In papers responding to the record companies' lawsuit, Robert Santangelo,
who was as young as 11 when the alleged piracy occurred, denied ever
disseminating music and said it's impossible to prove that he did.

Santangelo is the son of Patti Santangelo, the 42-year-old suburban mother
of five who was sued by the record companies in 2005. She refused to settle,
took her case public and became a heroine to supporters of Internet freedom.

The industry dropped its case against her in December but sued Robert and
his sister Michelle, now 20, in federal court in White Plains. Michelle has
been ordered to pay $30,750 in a default judgment because she did not
respond to the lawsuit.

Robert Santangelo and his lawyer, Jordan Glass, responded at length Tuesday,
raising 32 defenses, demanding a jury trial and filing a counterclaim
against the companies that accuses them of damaging the boy's reputation,
distracting him from school and costing him legal fees.

His defenses to the industry's lawsuit include that he never sent
copyrighted music to others, that the recording companies promoted file
sharing before turning against it, that average computer users were never
warned that it was illegal, that the statute of limitations has passed, and
that all the music claimed to have been downloaded was actually owned by his
sister on store-bought CDs.

Robert Santangelo also claims that the record companies, which have filed
more than 18,000 piracy lawsuits in federal courts, "have engaged in a
wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United States."

The papers allege that the companies, "ostensibly competitors in the
recording industry, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the
antitrust laws and public policy" by bringing the piracy cases jointly and
using the same agency "to make extortionate threats ... to force defendants
to pay."

The Recording Industry Association of America, which has coordinated most of
the lawsuits, issued a statement saying, "The record industry has suffered
enormously due to piracy. That includes thousands of layoffs. We must
protect our rights. Nothing in a filing full of recycled charges that have
gone nowhere in the past changes that fact."