The Santangelo family, in other words, is essentially blaming Kazaa and AOL for their file-sharing legal woes. The motion claims Kazaa "'operates in the background of one's computer' while 'recklessly disregarding copyright law' in order to ensnare 'unsuspecting users into unintended sharing.'" AOL is held accountable for its failure to protect the children by preventing known file-sharing. Even if Robert Santangelo's best friend hadn't ratted him out, it's hard to believe that the kids, who were 15 and 11 at the time, didn't realize what was going on. "Free" music is the whole point of Kazaa. In this case, ignorance of the law is not just no excuse — it's downright pathetic. (Photo by Chaz Larson)

• Reflecting on an interview with TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, a Reddit co-founder says the site "isn't serious" — and no one inside the tech bubble understands that. [Raw Thought]
• Why Windows shows you annoying, unnecessary popups: "Not many people have gotten a raise and a promotion for stopping features from shipping." [MSDN blogs]
• Elevator-pitch presentations? Yawn. Elevator-pitch contests? Now there's a chance to make someone cry. And we all love to see a startupper cry. [PR Leap]
• Kazaa, the disappointing successor to Napster, agreed to pay $10 million to music companies in a settlement over accusations of copyright infringement. [NY Times]
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation is representing blog 10 Zen Monkeys in a lawsuit against Michael Crook, who tried to coerce the blog into taking down the photo (Crook on right) you see here. The whole thing started because Crook griefed some sexually adventurous Craigslist users and published their personal information, and 10 Zen Monkeys railed against his actions. What a whiny emo kid. [10 Zen Monkeys]

• Animal Magazine editors sneak into Apple's 24-hour store without waiting in line. Then they pull the classy move of setting its website as the test computers' home page. They also confirm that the SNL staff shouldn't head out without makeup. [Animal Magazine via Blogebrity]
• Boing Boing gets giddy over DRM protestors (pictured doing an Intel ad), because no cause is worth fighting for more than your right to play Beyonce on your iPod. [Boing Boing]
• Web 2.0 jokes make it to the hipster lit comics. LOOK WHAT YOU PEOPLE HAVE WROUGHT. [Cat and Girl]
• Jobster acquires Jobby, making the cutest headline ever. [TechCrunch]
• Streamcast, the guys behind old-and-busted file-sharer Morpheus, have expanded their lawsuit against Kazaa, Skype and Skype's founders to include Skype's new owner, eBay — or as Techdirt puts it, "Streamcast realizes eBay is the one with the money." [Techdirt]

The peer-to-peer discussion site had published a user comment accusing Brilliant Digital execs Mark Dyne and Keven Bermeister of hiding behind Sharman CEO Niki Hemming. (According to a Wikipedia entry, record companies suing Kazaa maker Sharman Networks claim that Bermeister is running it from behind the scenes.)

A hefty accusation, and we'll leave it to the lawyers to decide what's libel or not. But megablogger Cory Doctorow (pictured here sans glasses) worked himself into a frenzy and lashed out at Kazaa:

This is about as bogus as it comes — real crybaby stuff, wah, someone said something nasty about me, I'll sue the site on which it appears — and P2PNet deserves better. They're raising funds for their defense, and I'll pitch in a hundred bucks once it's live.

The lesson we can all learn: Do not make Cory Doctorow think you're an asshole, or he will hurt you with words and money.

Crybaby Kazaa sues P2PNet for libel [BoingBoing]
kazaa sues p2pnet [P2PNet]
Niki Hemming's Money Mansion [P2PNet, cached]