And staying with blogs, we hear a number of bloggers have set up a fund to help raise cash to support Patricia Santangelo who, as previously reported, is planning on fighting a copyright violation lawsuit launched against her by the Recording Industry Association Of America.
Santangelo stands accused of illegally sharing music online via P2P networks. However it is unlikely the IT-illiterate Santangelo herself is guilty of the file sharing - and she claims any P2P usage was most likely undertaken by a friend of one of her children using her family's PC. It is hard to prove that one way or another so the case should be interesting when it goes to court because it poses the question - can people be held liable for any copyright violation conducted on their PC without their knowledge by non-family members? If not, then numerous P2P users accused of copyright violation will be handed a new defence.
Santangelo's commitment to fight the RIAA rather than settle out of court in return for an easy life has won her much support in the anti-corporate blogging community. But of course that commitment doesn't come cheap. Settling with the RIAA would probably have cost in the region of $7500. As it is her defence costs have so far reached $25,000 - a fee too far, forcing Santangelo to part company with her lawyers. Which is why blogs like FightTheRIAA.com, BoingBoing, P2Pnet and DownhillBattle.org have begun the campaign to raise money to help her meet those legal fees - so far some four grand has been raised via 284 donors.
Whether the fundraising will help remains to be seen - but the growing online support for single mother Santangelo makes the PR challenge presented by this lawsuit for the RIAA increasingly difficult.