Lawsuits & Judgments

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is best known for its seemingly endless series of lawsuits that it has filed against alleged music pirates. The front for the record industry has filed more than 21,000 lawsuits on behalf of its member, such as A&M, Sony and Virgin against people who are alleged to have illegally download copyrighted by their members.

Very few of the tthe lawsuits filed by the RIAA go to trial. In fact, it would seem that the lawsuit almost always includes an offer to settle for a few thousand dollars and a promise not to “do it again” The RIAA is taking advantage of the fact that most people can’t afford to take a suit to trial but some analysts claim that settling these suits is a bad deal for the defendant because they are an admission of guilt and offer no real protection against any future action; civil or criminal.

The RIAA has a less than perfect record when their suits do go to court. There have been several embarrassing defeats for the association in which mistaken identity led to suits being filed against the wrong person, sometimes even a person without computer. In one such case, single mom Tanya Andersen, had her case against the RIAA “dismissed with prejudiced”. Now Miss Andersen and her attorneys (Lybeck Murphy) have initiated a class action lawsuit against the RIAA for their heavy haded tactics. The suit alleges that the RIAA is in violation of both the RICO act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization ) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

According to an article in Variety

For years, the RIAA and its member companies have been using flawed and illegal private investigation information as part of their coordinated scheme and common enterprise to threaten, intimidate and coerce payment from private citizens across the United States. As such they have clogged and abused the federal courts for many years with factually baseless and fraudulent lawsuits.

Specifically, the claimant alleges that:

• The investigative firm hired by the RIAA is not licensed to conduct the type of work it is doing for the RIAA and that both this firm and the RIAA know that there methods are flawed and can result in cases of mistaken identity.
• The RIAA believed that Miss Anderson was innocent but would not drop the case because they did not want to encourage others to defend themselves.
• The RIAA employed coercive tactics against Miss Anderson and her family including an attempt to try and force a deposition from her 10 year old daughter.

The fact that the RIAA refused an offer from Miss Andersen’s offer to examine her computer and only dropped the case when ordered by the court to produce evidence of infringement does lead us to believe that the RIAA, or at least their agents in this case were more interested in pursuing the case than they were in justice.

This case lawsuit has been brought in the federal district court in Oregon and the class has not yet been certified.

What do you think?