RSS - Regulations, Statutes and Standards TMC

Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules

January 17, 2008

In Oregon, a U.S. District Court Judge has upheld a lower court's award of attorney's fees to Tanya Andersen, a woman who won acquittal on charges of illegally trading music files.

Andersen, who is disabled and a single parent, had been sued by the RIAA back in Feburary, 2005. After two years of claims by the RIAA against her, and her claim back in response, all charges were dismissed all around.

According to a citing by copyright attorney Ray Beckernan and referred to by Ars Technica, Judge James Redden declared that "the court's order dismissing Andersen's claims without prejudice provide a sufficient 'judicial imprimatur' on the 'alteration of the legal relationship of the parties' to justify conferring prevailing party status on Andersen."

Redden also upheld the magistrate's decision to dismiss her counterclaims without prejudice so that they could be heard as part of a malicious prosecution lawsuit filed by Andersen last June after the RIAA's case was dismissed, citing the "interests of judicial economy and comprehensive litigation."

Also, according to Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman:

Andersen's malicious prosecution lawsuit accuses the RIAA of invasion of privacy, deceptive business practices, libel, slander, and a host of other misdeeds, saying that the RIAA has "engaged in a coordinated enterprise to pursue a scheme of threatening and intimidating litigation in an attempt to maintain its music distribution monopoly." Her complaint contains some very disturbing allegations, including one that labels attempted to contact her then eight-year-old daughter under false pretenses without Andersen's permission.

Andersen is seeking class-action status for her lawsuit, which would allow anyone who was "sued or were threatened with sued by Defendants for file-sharing, downloading or other similar activities, who have not actually engaged in actual copyright infringement" to join the lawsuit. The RIAA has denied any wrongdoing and has moved for dismissal of the lawsuit.

 




Related Tags: , , ,

Email Author Feedback

See this page in TechnoratiTechnoratibook mark Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules in del.icio.usDel.icio.usLitigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules to Slashdot.comSlashdotSubmit Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules to Digg.comDiggBookmark Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules in FurlFurlBookmark Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules in SpurlSpurl

Listed below are links to sites that reference Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules:

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt3/t.fcgi/34695

Comments to Litigant Who Is Counter-Suing RIAA Entitled To Attorney's Fees, Court Rules


(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)