[Infowarrior] - RIAA capitulates in Atlantic v. Anderson

[Richard Forno]

RIAA throws in the towel in Atlantic v. Andersen

By Eric Bangeman | Published: June 04, 2007 - 04:04PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070604-riaa-throws-in-the-towel-in-at
lantic-v-andersen.html

One of the most notorious file-sharing cases is drawing to a close. Both
parties in Atlantic v. Andersen have agreed to dismiss the case with
prejudice, which means that Tanya Andersen is the prevailing party and can
attempt to recover attorneys fees.

Tanya Andersen was originally sued by the RIAA in 2005. She's a disabled
single mother with a nine-year-old daughter living in Oregon; she was
targeted by the music industry for downloading gangster rap over Kazaa under
the handle "gotenkito." She denied engaging in piracy and in October 2005,
she filed a countersuit accusing the record industry of racketeering, fraud,
and deceptive business practices, among other things.

As we noted earlier today, counterclaims accusing the RIAA of all sorts of
wrongdoing have become increasingly common. Late last month, Andersen filed
a motion for summary judgment, saying that the plaintiffs have "failed to
provide competent evidence sufficient to satisfy summary judgment standards"
to show that she engaged in copyright infringement. Most notably, a forensic
expert retained by the RIAA failed to locate "any evidence whatsoever" on
Andersen's PC that she had engaged in file-sharing.

The RIAA has already taken a beating in the press in this case‹accusing a
disabled single mother of sharing songs like "Hoes in My Room" over Kazaa
and then pressing doggedly ahead with the case despite mounting evidence
that it had erred tends to look bad. Faced with the prospect of a case that
was all but unwinnable, the RIAA has cut its losses by agreeing to dismiss
the case.

What's unusual is that the RIAA has stipulated to a dismissal with
prejudice, completely exonerating Andersen. Next to a negative verdict, an
exonerated defendant is the last thing the RIAA wants. When faced with an
undesirable outcome, the RIAA's tactic has been to move to dismiss without
prejudice, a "no harm, no foul" strategy that puts an end to a lawsuit
without declaring a winner and a loser. Dismissing a case with prejudice
opens the RIAA up to an attorneys' fee award, which happened in the case of
another woman caught in the music industry's driftnet, Debbie Foster.

With the original RIAA complaint has dismissed, Andersen told Ars Technica
in an e-mail that the counterclaim is "now standing on its own," meaning
that she will still have the opportunity to argue her counterclaims before
the court. Given the allegations she has made, prevailing with the
counterclaim could prove even more troubling to the RIAA.

Given the facts of the case and the precedent set by Capitol v. Foster, an
attorneys' fee award is not out of the question. Getting the RIAA to
actually cut a check may prove to be a bit more difficult, as Foster's
attorneys have discovered. You can track the progress of Foster's attempts
to recover fees‹and many other file-sharing cases‹at Recording Industry vs.
The People.