Music piracy settlement reached in New York

A $7‚000 settlement has been agreed in a music piracy case involving a family from New York.

Record industry bosses have agreed to a $7,000 (£4,707) settlement following a piracy lawsuit filed against a New York family.

Four years ago, Patricia Santangelo was accused by several record companies of downloading and distributing around 1,000 music tracks illegally.

The 46-year-old was one of thousands of people sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over the intellectual property issue.

Ms Santangelo refused to settle, arguing that she could not have downloaded the music from the internet as she did not now how to.

The case against her was eventually dropped but a new one was filed against her two teenage children, Michelle and Robert.

Both youngsters have denied the charges, but the RIAA states that Robert had been implicated by a friend and that his sister had admitted piracy in a deposition.

The $7,000 settlement was filed in court last week and the family have six months to pay the full amount.

Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, told the Associated Press: "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Santangelos."

She declined to comment on how much the case had cost, insisting: "We don't break out costs per case and it's not a question of it being 'worth it' or a 'victory'."

According to PC Magazine, the RIAA said in December that it would no longer be suing individual downloaders for breaches of copyright.

Instead it will be working with internet service provides in an effort to crack down on music piracy.