Last weekend, I blogged about Patricia Santangelo, the first person threatened with a RIAA file-sharing lawsuit to opt to defend herself, rather than simply settle for thousands of dollars.
I've been told by an insider that the RIAA lawsuits are self-sustaining: that is, the cost of running their shakedown operation was less than the settlements it generated, so there was no reason to expect an end to the legal attacks on thousands of Internet users.
Patricia Santangelo's defense shifts those economics. By defending herself in court, Santangelo is causing the RIAA to fork over for attorneys to argue (albeit ineptly) that she should be forced to pay up to $150,000 per act of infringement that she is alleged to have committed.
How can Santangelo afford to defend herself? She has an attorney who believes that she is innocent, and that when she is found innocent that she will be able to recoup his fees from the RIAA.
This attorney (Ray Beckerman of Beldock Levine & Hoffman) believes that he can do this for lots of RIAA defendants. If he and other attorneys make good on this, kiss the RIAA's profitable legal shakedown goodbye: once the long-term suicide of suing customers becomes unprofitable in the short term as well, no way are the shareholders in these corporations let them go on.
We expect Ms Santangelo's costs to be picked up by the RIAA, since (a) the copyright statute permits the Court to shift the attorneys fees to the losing party, (b) these cases were clearly frivolous and brought in bad faith, and (c) it is a matter of public interest that the RIAA be deterred from bringing more such meritless cases…
We will fight to the end. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't take on something unless I am prepared to fight to the end. Also, anyone who knows me knows that the one thing I can't stand is a bully. The RIAA will give up long before we do, because sooner or later it will dawn upon them that their attorneys are taking them for a ride…
As far as I am concerned there should be no limit to how many people we can represent. If we have too many cases we can hire more lawyers.
