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# Teen Sues Major Labels For Collusion
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/teen_sues_major/
- Published: 2007-01-31T13:02:24.000Z
- Updated: 2007-01-31T13:02:24.000Z
- Description: 16-year-old Robert Santangelo has filed a counter-suit against five record labels and the RIAA for conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. Santangelo, who was 11 when the. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2007/01/teen_sues_major.html]
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Major Labels, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 11:06

16-year-old Robert Santangelo has [filed](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap%5Fen%5Fmu/music%5Fdownload%5Fsuit%5F2?ref=hypebot.com) a counter-suit against five record labels and the RIAA for conspiring to defraud the courts and making  
extortionate threats. Santangelo,  
who was 11 when the

[![Legal_9](https://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/images/legal_9.jpg "Legal_9")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/legal%5F9.jpg&ref=hypebot.com)

  
alleged piracy occurred, denies having shared music illegally and claims it’s impossible to prove that he did.

His court filings claim that the major labels (who have  
filed more than 18,000 anti-piracy lawsuits) "have engaged  
in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United  

[![Riaa_toiletpaper_2](https://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/images/riaa_toiletpaper_2.jpg "Riaa_toiletpaper_2")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/riaa%5Ftoiletpaper%5F2.jpg&ref=hypebot.com)

  
States." He alleges that the companies, "ostensibly competitors in the  
recording industry, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the  
antitrust laws and public policy" by bringing the piracy cases jointly  
and using the same agency "to make extortionate threats … to force  
defendants to pay."

His personal defense also includes claims that:

- he never shared copyrighted music
- major labels originally promoted file  
sharing
- average computer users were  
never warned that file sharing was illegal
- the statute of limitations has  
passed
- that all the music claimed to have been downloaded was owned by his sister on CD’s.