[A2k] Oklahoma woman takes sue happy RIAA to the bank

[Michelle Childs]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/17/riaa_pays_legal_fees/


Oklahoma woman takes sue happy RIAA to the bank
$68,685.23 to cover three year case
By Austin Modine in Mountain View =E2=86=92 More by this author
Published Tuesday 17th July 2007 20:30 GMT


In what appears to be the first known case of its kind, the RIAA has
been ordered to pay a defendant nearly $70,000 in attorney fees and
costs after unsuccessfully suing for copyright infringement.

According to court documents, the Recording Industry Association of
America first contacted Oklahoma resident Deborah Foster by phone in
2004. An RIAA settlement representative accused her of downloading
copyrighted material off the file-sharing program, Kazaa, using the
screen name "fllygirl11," and demanded a payment of $5,000. Foster
refused, claiming she did not download any songs from the internet.
The settlement representative responded by offering to go down as far
as $3,750, but Foster again refused to pay.

(RIAA watchdog Recording Industry vs. The People have been following
the paperwork.)

In response, the RIAA filed suit against Deborah Foster in November
2004. Her adult daughter Amanda was added to the complaint in July
2005 when it was indicated that she had access to the internet
account. Because Amanda failed to defend herself against the
complaint, the RIAA won the case against her by default.

The ruling against Deborah was then amended to allege she
"contributorily and/or vicariously" infringed on copyrighted recordings.

The RIAA continued its lawsuit against Deborah Foster, claiming she
was liable as the owner of the internet account responsible for the
copyright infringement. Foster refused to settle with the RIAA
outside of court, and as the case dragged on, her litigation
investment became considerable.

On July 13, 2006 the Oklahoma court ordered the RIAA's claims against
Foster be dismissed with prejudice and ruled she was eligible to be
awarded attorneys fees. The court was skeptical that "an internet-
illiterate parent, who does not know Kazaa from a kazoo" could be
liable for copyright infringement committed by someone else using her
internet account.

Foster first requested $105,680.75 in attorney fees, but the RIAA
objected to this, claiming the figure was unreasonable and that she
was not entitled to fees for work that could have been avoided "had
she assisted the RIAA or acceded to settlement." The court eventually
whittled the award down to $68,685.23 in a 14-page document which
itemized her expenses.

A RIAA representative would not talk to us about the case, and said
she did not know if it was the first time attorneys' fees were
rewarded to a defendant in similar RIAA copyright lawsuits.

The organization has gained notoriety for its fight against copyright
infringement through blind pursuit of improbable offenders and gross
intimidation. Last month, an unemployed single mom renewed a legal
challenge against the RIAA, accusing the organization of contacting
her 10-year-old daughter at school by impersonating the girl's
grandmother on the phone. The organization claims it has been
successful in a recent campaign of blanketing colleges with
threatening legal letters, and offering to absolve students guilty or
otherwise if they pay a settlement at an RIAA website (major credit
cards accepted.)

"My thoughts are that this award, together with some interesting
interim decisions against the RIAA in other cases, will be incentive
for more defendants to vigorously fight the RIAA, and of course where
successful, demand attorneys' fees," said Leonard Rubin, an attorney
at Chicago-based Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver.

Rubin does not, however, believe the case will serve as a deterrent
to the RIAA in its lawsuit campaign. "The RIAA is in a headlong rush
to discourage downloaders, many of them college students, from
unlawfully copying copyrighted music, and the RIAA apparently doesn't
care how much it costs them =E2=80=94 they do not file these cases for the
sake of collecting either settlement money or monetary judgments."=C2=AE

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Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@keionline.org