Mr. Atkinson’s settlement

The way the RIAA sues you for downloading music is extremely cunning. As Judge Nancy Gertner puts it, it’s like squeezing water out of a rock. They sue you, an amount that is large, but still smaller than what it would take to actually fight it out in court. You settle because that is the smarter choice– you can pay, or fight back, and end up paying more in legal fees.

That’s what happened with Alphon Atkinson, one of the members in Joel’s docket who agreed to settle. Mr. Atkinson was sued because his son downloaded music on a computer that he had bought. In a hearing held June 17 last year, Mr. Atkinson appeared before the court and explained his predicament. Up to this point, the RIAA didn’t even know that the person they had sued was not the actual downloader.

“My son, he’s the kid who downloaded the songs from the Internet,” Mr. Atkinson said. “They came after me because my name is on the computer, but I bought the computer. At the time he downloaded, he was a child, okay, and I’m the father.” Mr. Atkinson explained that he was retired and that his son had just graduated from college and didn’t have the money.

“If what he says is true that he didn’t do the downloading–” Judge Nancy Gertner said to Simon Mann (who was representing the recording industry), “–that it was his son who did the downloading and his son has no assets, you’re getting water from a stone. What are you pursuing here?”

“Why are they suing me?” Mr. Atkinson asked. “I didn’t download anything.”

“That’s true of all these people,” said Judie Tenenbaum (Joel’s mother). “He [Mr. Atkinson] has been complaining forever that he has no assets and that he will file for bankruptcy, and all these people have said that’s tough.”

“Your honor, if I may,” Mr. Mann interrupted. “This is why we bring debtors into court so we can examine in fact what their ability to pay is.”

“But you understand, this is a terribly vicious cycle,” Judge Gertner said. “On the one hand, you say we bring them into court so we can examine them. They come into court without a lawyer. They haven’t a clue what these proceedings are. We have been trying to explain it to people, and then because they don’t respond, the numbers keep on going up and up, and at a certain point after 133 cases in my court and countless around the country, the plaintiffs are going to realize this is making no sense and making them look bad.”

She continued: “Mr. Atkinson, you did not respond to the case, they sued you, you didn’t respond. When you don’t respond, the defenses that you’re raising now don’t get onto the court record. They may be legitimate defenses, but you never mentioned them before, then they wind up with a judgment for $4,000.”

“Let me explain to you the reason why I didn’t respond and the reason why I take so long to respond,” Mr. Atkinson said. “This is my second time coming to this court, okay. When I came in the first time, there was so many people here in tears and confusion and everything else, I didn’t get to talk to the Judge. I came here, and the plaintiffs were crying and everybody was so confused. When I walked in here, nothing else went on, I was confused myself. I walked in here and walked out of here without knowing what’s going on, so I came without knowing what’s going on, okay.”

Judge Gertner decided to let Mr. Atkinson talk with the record company representatives about settling. “If it is the case that it was your son and your son has no money because he just graduated college, then the case will be over or should be over in the rational world, okay, so I’m going to take this as an oral motion to set aside the default and after today you respond.”

At the end of the day, however, Mr. Atkinson ended up settling. The deal? He’s still paying $4650– but it’s going to be in installments of $50 that he has to pay for almost eight years. The RIAA generously decided to overlook interest, but basically they got what they wanted. And that’s how their operation has been working. Until Joel, that is. Joel decided to fight back.

-By Yvette Wohn