[Infowarrior] - Business Week on RIAA lawsuits

[Richard Forno]

In Depth April 24, 2008, 5:00PM EST text size: TT
Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?
Inside Tanya Andersen's private war with the recording industry. Hint: She's
winning

by Heather Green

When Tanya Andersen opens the door to her modest apartment in suburban
Portland, Ore., her Maltese-terrier mix, Tazz, runs over and wags his tail
in a friendly hello. The 45-year-old single mother doesn't seem like much of
a fighter. She spends most of her days sitting on an overstuffed sofa with a
heating pad behind her back to ease chronic pain and migraines that have
kept her on disability for nearly five years. Her voice is soft and halting.
Yet this woman is behind a fierce assault on the music industry and its
tactics for combating music piracy on the Internet. "I've just got to keep
doing what I believe is right," she says, with Tazz curled up next to her on
the couch. "And that's fighting and letting people know what's happening."

After being sued by the music industry for stealing songs and winning the
case's dismissal, Andersen is now taking the record industry to court. Her
case is aimed at exposing investigative practices that are controversial and
may be illegal, according to the lawsuit. One company hired by the record
industry, she claims, snoops through people's computers, uncovering private
files and photos, even though it has no legal right to do so. A different
industry-backed company uses tactics similar to those of debt collectors,
pressuring people to pay thousands of dollars in settlements even before any
wrongdoing is proven. In Andersen's case, the industry's Settlement Support
Center said that unless she paid $4,000 to $5,000 immediately, it would
"ruin her financially," the suit alleges.

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http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_18/b4082042959954.htm