p2pnet.net – the original daily p2p and digital media news site: P2Pnet.net has a great story out with a complete transcript from a recent CNN American Morning Show regarding the RIAA’s recent decision to sue Patti Santangelo, a working mother of five, who had no knowledge that file trading was taking place on her computer.
“CNN: Is there another way to approach this problem? Because, sad to say, it’s not stopping it.
CARY SHERMAN (RIAA): Well, we certainly have approached this problem with settlements. We were disappointed that Ms. Santangelo didn’t take advantage of an opportunity to get rid of this case quickly, as most people have when they find that somebody in their household or somebody using their computer was in the wrong.
And we tried to be very fair and reasonable about this and take these matters up on a case-by-case basis. But the important thing is to get the message out there that this is illegal.
CNN: It might get that message out that it’s illegal, but there’s also another message which comes out, which is a question of fairness. Is it fair to go after a divorced mother of five who doesn’t have a lot of financial means, who really didn’t know anything about this and thought she was doing all she could to protect her kids online?
SHERMAN: And we understand that point. And the reality is that an overwhelming number of people who have been sued tell us the same story, that they didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t know it was illegal, and so on and so forth.
CNN: And so what do you say? You just tell them — say, tell it to the judge? Is that it?”
It’s great to see this story getting some mainstream public attention. Hopefully at some point the backlash against the RIAA is strong enough to convince our legislators to quit siding with Hollywood’s big campaign contributions and think about their actual constituents who are being pummeled by the recording industry.