Setback for malicious prosecution lawsuit against RIAA: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Although the RIAA has decided to stop initiating new legal actions against music fans as part of its war on piracy, there are still a few cases in which the wheels of justice are rolling ahead slowly. One such case is Andersen v. Atlantic, where exonerated former RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen is suing the record labels for malicious prosecution, negligence, and conspiracy. That lawsuit hit a speed bump when a federal judge dismissed some of the claims in Andersen's lawsuit. [ Read more ... ]

Judge Recommending Legal Fees in RIAA v. Andersen - Via Threat Level:

A federal magistrate is recommending that Tanya Andersen, who defeated the Recording Industry Association of America's file sharing lawsuit, be awarded $108,000 in legal fees.

The recommendation by Magistrate John Acosta, if upheld by an Oregon federal judge, would mark the second time that a target of the RIAA who beat a lawsuit was awarded attorney's fees. In August, a federal judge ordered the RIAA to pay $68,685 in litigation costs to two Oklahoma women whose case was dismissed. [ Read more ... ]

Judge Orders RIAA to Pay Legal Fees to Falsely Accused Lawsuit Target -- the Second Such Ruling - Via Threat Level:

A litigation target of the Recording industry Association of America has been awarded attorney's fees after the music business falsely sued an Oregon woman for copyright infringement.

It is the second time a federal judge has awarded defense expenses to an RIAA target who was falsely accused.

In the Oregon case, U.S. District Judge James Redden ruled Tuesday that 42-year-old Tanya Andersen should be compensated for the costs of her legal defense. The court did not specify how much to award Andersen, but her lawyers have suggested it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. [ Read more ... ]

New Attorneys Fee Decision Against RIAA: NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has gotten slammed again, this time in Oregon, as the Magistrate Judge in Atlantic v. Andersen has ruled that Tanya Andersen's motion for attorneys fees should be granted. The Magistrate, in his 15-page decision, noted that, despite extensive pretrial discovery proceedings, 'when plaintiffs dismissed their claims in June 2007, they apparently had no more material evidence to support their claims than they did when they first contacted defendant in February 2005.....' and concluded that 'Copyright holders generally, and these plaintiffs specifically, should be deterred from prosecuting infringement claims as plaintiffs did in this case.' [ Read more ... ]

Class Action Initiated Against RIAA: NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Ever since the RIAA's litigation campaign began in 2003, many people have been suggesting a class action against the RIAA. Tanya Andersen, in Oregon, has taken them up on it. The RIAA's case against this disabled single mother, Atlantic v. Andersen, has received attention in the past, for her counterclaims against the RIAA including claims under Oregon's RICO statute, the RIAA's hounding of her young daughter for a face-to-face deposition, the RIAA's eventual dropping of the case 'with prejudice,' and her lawsuit against the RIAA for malicious prosecution, captioned Andersen v. Atlantic. Now she's turned that lawsuit into a class action. [ Read more ... ]

RIAA throws in the towel in Atlantic v. Andersen: "

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. [ Read more ... ]