[Infowarrior] - Label Must Pay P2P Defendent's Legal Fees

[Richard Forno]

Tuesday, 6 February 2007
Scoop: Label Must Pay P2P Defendent's Legal Fees
http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/02/scoop_label_mus.html#more

Snipshot_b288r1w1slp Debbie Foster, the RIAA file sharing defendent who
notoriously took on the organization after it went after her for copyright
infringement, has won some amount of the legal fees [see update below] she
seeks from the RIAA after having their case against her dismissed last
summer.

This is a significant development; the landmark case could have dramatic
repercussions for the RIAA's legal campaign against file sharers, since a
precedent now exists for the RIAA to compensate wrongfully-sued defendants
for their legal costs.  (Capitol Records' mistake was to claim Debbie Foster
was liable for any infringement occuring on her internet account, regardless
of who actually downloaded and subsequently shared the files.)

Listening Post has obtained a copy of Judge Lee R. West's Order, issued
today, in which the judge grants Foster an award of "reasonable attorney
fees in this action under § 505 of the Copyright Act," but denies her
"attorneys' fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1927."

I'm going to leave the full legal analysis for Listening Post's legal expert
Stewart Rutledge, but wanted to post the news right away that Capitol will
owe Foster some percentage of her legal fees, which totaled approximately
$50,000 [see update below].

What a bad day for major labels... first Steve Jobs tells them he's had it
with DRM, and now a judge says they're going to have to pay up if they sue
people for sharing files, but then can't prove that the infringement
happened.  Stay tuned for exclusive analysis of the Order.

Update: I just spoke with Marilyn Barringer Thomson, Debbie Foster's
attorney, who told me that she and her client are "pleased with the
outcome," and explained that the judge granting attorneys' fees under the
specific Copyright Act was preferable to him granting the fees under the
more general 1927 statute (essentially, Thomson's main legal theory
triumphed, and her back-up/alternate was denied).  Finally, Thomson said
that the label will likely owe Foster more than $50,000, since today's Order
allows her to supplement the attorneys' fees total to include additional
time spent on the case.