The Substantially Similar Weblog

I just came across a transcript of a hearing in the Elektra v. Santangelo lawsuit, one of the Recording Industry file-sharing lawsuits that didn’t settle immediately. Santangelo is a single mom who is representing herself (thus far) in the lawsuit. She asserts that the file sharing perpetrator was not her or even her children, but rather one of her children’s friends. Moreover, the accused computer is no longer in her possession, making it quite difficult to research the Recording Industry’s claims.

The judge is quite sympathetic to Ms. Santangelo, and the transcript is worth reading:

MS. SANTANGELO: I realized when I looked at this that the downloads, I guess they call it Exhibit B, the screen name that this Kazaa was under doesn’t belong to anyone in my family. And that’s most likely why I was never notified by AOL or any of my — the companies that I have online service with that my children had downloaded anything. Apparently, it belongs to a friend of my son, who is now 14.

THE COURT: I see.

MS. SANTANGELO: And I didn’t know about it. And I really don’t know where to go from here. And so I’m a little dumbfounded by the whole thing.

THE COURT: Yes, I know. I keep saying I live in — although I’ve read the riot act to my own kids a hundred times —

MS. SANTANGELO: Oh, yeah, now I have.

THE COURT: — I live in perpetual fear that something I don’t know my kids are doing is going to come back and bite me in the butt. And the difference between you and me, Ms. Santangelo, if it happens to me, it will be in the headlines of the New York Post.

[…]

THE COURT: Okay. Well, I think it would be a really good idea for you to get a lawyer, because I would love to see a mom fighting one of these.