Single mum takes on music industry

The fight against illegal file sharing by record labels has been going on since Shaun Fanning's orginal Napster sparked a sea change in how fans listened to music. After a wave of lawsuits last year, 3,700 people in the US and around 80 in the UK agreed to hand over thousands of dollars/pounds each to settle copyright infringement claims. Except, that is, 49-year single mother of five Patricia Santangelo. Accused by the RIAA of sharing music through Kazaa, she is taking on the music business single-handedly, aided by bloggers and websites who have so far collected over $4500 to help her fight her case. Something of a cause célèbre already, Ms Santangelo's battle is already attracting acres of publicity – most of it on her side. Nobody is saying that people should be allowed to rip-off things for free, but the perceived heavy-handed nature of this case hardly does a music industry, which continues to blame most of its woes on illegal up/downloading, any favours. Or does it?