[Infowarrior] - Judge denies RIAA request to reconsider attorneys' fees award

[Richard Forno]

Judge denies RIAA request to reconsider attorneys' fees award

By Eric Bangeman | Published: April 24, 2007 - 11:59AM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070424-judge-denies-riaa-request-to-r
econsider-attorneys-fees-award.html

A federal judge has denied the RIAA's motion for reconsideration of his
attorneys' fees award in Capitol v. Foster. Calling the RIAA's motion for
reconsideration one of "very limited appropriateness," Judge Lee R. West
found fault with just about every one of the RIAA's arguments.

Capitol v. Foster involves an Oklahoma woman targeted as part of the record
industry's driftnet of file-sharing legislation. Last July, Foster won, when
the case was dismissed with prejudice. Her victory opened up the door for
her to recover attorneys' fees from the RIAA, and Judge West granted her
motion for an award of fees in February, citing in part the RIAA's attempt
to paint her as guilty of "secondary copyright infringement" in his
decision.

As one might expect, the award was not greeted with much enthusiasm by the
record industry, in no small part due to the ramifications it could have for
other file-sharing litigation. A couple of weeks after the judge's ruling,
the RIAA asked him to reconsider his decision, citing among other things the
"premature end of discovery," being denied the chance to prove their claims
of secondary infringement, and its belief that an attorneys' fees award
rewarded the defendant for deciding to litigate long after the court battle
should have been settled.

In his ruling, Judge West disagreed strongly with the RIAA's interpretation
of events. With regard to the secondary infringement claims, Judge West
found that "Based on the limited record and the fact that the plaintiffs
could not point to a single case finding secondary liability for copyright
infringement under similar circumstances, the Court concluded the
plaintiffs' secondary copyright terms appeared to be marginal and
indisputably untested."

The judge also ridiculed the RIAA's assertion that it was denied the chance
to prove secondary infringement, noting that the record labels moved
voluntarily to dismiss the case instead of proceeding to a trial.

Currently, the RIAA and Debbie Foster are engaged in discovery over the
reasonableness of Foster's attorneys' fees, and the RIAA was forced to turn
over their own billing records to Foster's attorneys. The RIAA had fought
vigorously to keep those records from being revealed, saying that their
disclosure could materially affect other file-sharing cases. Judge West
agreed and issued a protective order instructing Foster's attorneys to
maintain the confidentiality of the RIAA's billing records.

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