RIAA settles for $7,000

One of the longest-running battles in the recording industry's war against file-sharing appears to have finally come to an end. Michelle (age 22) and Robert (age 18) Santangelo have settled a lawsuit filed against them by the RIAA in November 2006 for P2P use that occurred when Michelle was 15 and Robert 11. The siblings will pay the RIAA a total of $7,000 in installments due by November of this year?a paltry sum given that the RIAA started its settlement offers in the $3,000-4,000 range and often raised the cost if the defendant contested the charges in court.

The RIAA had originally sued their mother, Patricia, in February 2005. Having no knowledge of how to download music, she denied the allegations and soon found herself preparing for trial?despite the fact that the judge presiding over the case called her "an Internet-illiterate parent, who does not know Kazaa from kazoo, and who can barely retrieve her e-mail." Like the thousands of others who were targeted by the RIAA, she could have made the problem go away with a check for $4,000. Instead, she spent over $24,000 defending herself against the charges before running out of money and firing her lawyer (a fundraising campaign raised an additional $15,000 for her defense).

During discovery, Patricia Santangelo's hard drive was turned over to RIAA forensic investigators who found KaZaA installed and set to share music. Her defense was that a friend of her children installed the program on the family PC. The RIAA was eventually convinced that Patricia was not responsible for the P2P action and dismissed the lawsuit against her in April 2006.

After filing suit against Robert and Michelle, the RIAA was able to obtain a default judgment for $30,750 against Michelle, who never responded to the original lawsuit. That judgment was later overturned. As the case made its slow way through the courts, a friend of Robert's testified under oath that Robert had downloaded KaZaA and used it "almost daily;" Michelle eventually copped to P2P use in a deposition.

Under the terms of the settlement, the two have to make six payments of $583.33 by October after paying half of the settlement up front. Family attorney Jordan Glass told the AP that Robert and Michelle did not admit to any wrongdoing; instead, they settled the lawsuit in order to control costs and move on. "Sometimes you reduce the damages so much it's time to call it quits," Glass said.

The RIAA is also glad the case is over. "We're pleased to have settled our case with the Santangelos," director of communications Cara Duckworth told Ars. But for the RIAA, $7,000 won't even begin to cover the hundreds (thousands?) of billable hours it incurred over four years of litigation (and it may have been able to win had the case gone to trial). But the group has never claimed that the years-long legal campaign was about the money?it was always about sending a message and deterring copyright infringement.