RIAA loses.. will pay court costs

[RedjackRyan]

"In Capitol Records v. Foster, in federal court in Oklahoma, a case against a mother -- whose only connection to the alleged filesharing was that she was the person who paid for the internet access -- has been dismissed with prejudice. Faced with the mother's motion for leave to file a summary judgment motion dismissing the case against her, and awarding her attorneys fees, the RIAA made its own motion for permission to withdraw its case. The Court granted the motion and let the RIAA drop its case. The Court went on to hold that the defendant, Ms. Foster, is the 'prevailing party' under the Copyright Act and is therefore eligible for an award of attorneys fees. The Court then indicated that it would decide the attorneys fees award question upon receipt of a motion for attorneys fees.

http://www.ilrweb.com/viewILRPDF.asp?filename=capitol_foster_dismissal

[DaveM]

She should now countersue for wasted time, most likely going into hock to defend herself against the behemoth, and emotional pain and suffering. Turnabout is fair play, after all.

Nice to see the RIAA being put in its place for a change.

[DaveM]

Recording Industry vs The People* -- "a blog
devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary
working people." Run by Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman, two New York
lawyers, this blog is an information clearinghouse for people who have
been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) "for
having computers whose internet accounts were used to open up peer-to-
peer file sharing accounts." (The site has a TERRIBLE layout -- pretty
much everything is on one page -- but the information there is as
useful as it is scary.) The bloggers find such cases "to be oppressive
and unfair, as large multinational corporations gang up, in a cartel,
to misuse the federal courts and sue ordinary working people for
thousands of dollars" -- with little evidence to back up their cases.
* http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com

[RedjackRyan]

its a small victory, but hopefully a preview of things to come. Sooner or later the RIAA and the like will have to adapt or go the way of the dinosaurs..

[DaveM]

Would be nice if they would stop planting viruses on file-sharing sites, too.