RIAA victim seeks attorney fees
p2pnet.net news:- Two West Coast mothers are demanding Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA pays their attorneys’ fees after it unsuccessfully tried to sue them, labelling them online criminals.
Tanya Andersen and Dawnell Leadbetter were each terrorised by RIAA and its investigators for two years before the organised music enforcer finally abandoned its attempts to paint them as thieves who’d been “stealing” copyrighted music and “massively” distributing it online.
Andersen recently had her case thrown out and is looking for justice, and now Leadbetter, too, is asking the court to award her attorneys fees, says Andersen recently had her case thrown out and is looking for justice, and now Leadbetter, too, is asking the court to award her attorneys fees, says Recording Industry vs The People.
Both mothers are represented by Lory Lybeck who in his brief for Leadbetter states, “She and her son were caught in the same abusive ‘shoot first and sort it out later’ approach the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had employed in tens of thousands of cases around the country.”
He goes on:
Like in other cases when proving to be wrong, the RIAA-controlled plaintiffs here seek to dismiss and irresponsibly walk away without consequence.
The member companies of the RIAA have for years enjoyed titanic profits from the industry in which they control an almost complete monogamy: the distribution of sound recordings. Perceiving a threat to its market domination in the form of Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing, in 2003 the RIAA launched an international public relations campaign intended to threaten and intimidate potential or actual music downloaders.
Lybeck also points out the similarity between Leadbetter’s case and that of Debbie Foster, an Oklahoma nurse who also had the RIAA’s case against her dismissed and who also went through hell and high water to force the RIAA to pay her what it owed..
” ‘Disingenuous’ means insincere or calculating, and that’s how Judge Lee R. West has labelled a claim by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America),” said a p2pnet story.
“Oklahoma mother Debbie Foster, accused of being an illlicit distributor of copyrighted music online, and her lawyer, Marilyn Barringer-Thomson, fought the RIAA to a standstill and in the process were awarded was attorneys’ fees.
“Now the RIAA is doing everything it can to get out of paying.”
Foster was sued solely because she’d paid for a Net account.
The RIAA later in the case attempted to plead “secondary liability” against her without any factual basis, but its tactic was repudiated by judge Lee R. West in Capitol v. Foster as “marginal” and “untested” in his initial decision warding attorneys’ fees, and in his later decision denying the RIAA’s plea for “consideration,” says Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman.
Also See:
Tanya Andersen – I lived a nightmare: RIAA victim, June 14, 2007
Dawnell Leadbetter – The ‘We’re Not Taking Any More’ club, September 17, 2005
Recording Industry vs The People – Dawnell Leadbetter Moves for Attorneys Fees, June 22, 2007
p2pnet – Judges labels RIAA claim ‘disingenuous’, April 24, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Tanya Andersen lives in Oregon, not Washington.
Best regards
Ray Beckerman
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:08 am
In any lawsuit, a clearly prevailing party has a right to come out of the case withousing loosing money. Otherwise the legal system is plain hell and abusive.
But more so in copyright cases as in case after case that it wah thas been decided. The Copyright Act even mentions the right to attorney fees for the suing party, if it prevails.
It would be plainly unjust if the sued party did not have equal rights, as they do. See next:
FROM COPYRIGHT ACT TITLE 17
“Sec. 505. Remedies for infringement: Costs and attorney’s fees
In any civil action under this title, the court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any party other than the United States or an officer thereof. Except as otherwise provided by this title, the court may also award a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs. ”
Rafael Venegas
gvenegas.com
June 23rd, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Quite right, Ray. I’ve written about them both often enough. Another dumb mistake.
Apologies to both.
Cheers!