Tonya Andersen Trying To Turn Her Lawsuit Against The RIAA Into A Class Action
from the might-not-be-the-best-idea dept
Tanya Andersen has been fighting back against a bogus RIAA lawsuit for a while, and got some attention earlier this summer when she accused the RIAA of breaking the law with its investigation technique. It's also one of a few cases that have questioned whether or not the RIAA's settlement offer process can be considered illegal racketeering. However, she's now looking to turn her lawsuit into a class action case, covering all of those who have been sued by the RIAA. It may be quite difficult to convince a judge that this really deserves class action status, but if it gets that far, it'll certainly be fun to watch. It's been pretty clear for quite some time that the RIAA is abusing the process by making it cheaper to settle than even to defend your innocence (which sounds mighty similar to the classic shakedown). However, whether or not you can build a class out of those offered settlement deals (or sued) isn't entirely clear. But, if it can actually get somewhere, then it might finally make the RIAA recognize that it's practices are questionable. So far, every time someone has accused them of anything like this, they just try to get out of the case and move on to suing others who are less likely to fight back.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: class action, racketeering, riaa, rico
Companies: riaa
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This is how you fight back, instead of blaming some one else like in the other recent related article.
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Most Class Action
Class actions seem like mostly just another lawyer milk run.
Somebody please refute this so I might hate lawyers a tiny less.
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Re: Most Class Action
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Tonya Andersen To Turn Her Lawsuit Against The RIA
Maychic
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Re: Most Class Action
If she wins and pushes it far enough, she can even force them to properly identify infringers and not even offer them a settlement until the lawsuit has been filed. This will add to their overhead since they will have to file a civil suit in order to even talk to a potential defendant.
A class action win here could be devastating to their methods. However, she has a lot of hurdles to overcome. This will be an interesting case to watch.
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Re: Most Class Action
Big business and their political puppets want us to keep our eyes on how much the plaintiff's lawyers get, and how little the plaintiffs themselves get. They cry about the need for so-called "tort reform" so they can further screw the people they injure.
Keep your eye on the ball. The guilty have to be punished severely enough to prevent them and others from doing it again.
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In any case, kudos to Ms. Andersen for not backing down to the Mafia known as RIAA. (no offense to the Mafia!) I hope you win a huge judgement from those creeps, so they'll realize that their business model must adapt to new technology.
And, maybe, the artists who live like royalty will have adjust too...
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Re: limit to the proportion of the winnings the la
They may not win the case. Even if they do win, the inevitable appeals cost additional tons of money.
In class actions they are fighting immense corporations that have virtually unlimited money to spend on these cases.
Limiting the amount that class action lawyers can earn will have the effect of limiting access to the courts for injured parties.
Of course, you have nothing to worry about if you can match the corporation's ability to pay lawyers.
Do you have that much money?
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Re: the lawyers should be upfront about how much
Everybody hates lawyers until they need one. It's easy isn't it? All you have to do is stop thinking.
No - I'm not a lawyer, or the father, mother, sister or brother of one.
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