Tanya Andersen Decides To Drop Racketeering Charges Against The RIAA

from the this-is-for-the-best dept

Business Week has a fantastic and detailed article going through the history of Tanya Andersen's legal battles with the RIAA. As has been pointed out from early on, the RIAA went after her with very little evidence, bullied her to settle and pay up, and then tried to force her to agree not to countersue before it would drop charges. Andersen and her lawyer, however, refused to give up -- and not only won against the RIAA, but had the RIAA pay up on Andersen's lawyers' fees. After all that, she and her lawyer have filed a series of lawsuits against the RIAA alleging illegal investigative practices and racketeering.

While it's great to see her fighting back, we'd always said that the racketeering claim was a huge stretch, based on the specifics of the law. It doesn't do anyone any good to file a racketeering charge if it can't be proven. So, it's good to see that Andersen appears ready to drop that claim. At the very end of the article, it notes that a judge has pushed back on Andersen's filing, and she plans to drop the racketeering and fraud charges. Instead, a new filing will focus on "conspiracy, negligence, and abuse of the legal process." Again, "conspiracy" seems like a long shot -- but negligence and abuse of the legal process seem a lot more interesting. Either way, there will be plenty to follow in this case.

Filed Under: copyright, piracy, racketeering, riaa, tanya andersen
Companies: riaa

Tanya Andersen Refiles Racketeering Charges Against RIAA; But Don't Get Too Excited

from the still-a-long-shot... dept

As was widely expected, Tanya Andersen has refiled her class action racketeering charges against the RIAA. This is a refiling of a case that was dismissed last month. At the time, we noted that the case could be refiled, but it would be very difficult for Andersen to prove the racketeering charges. While a bunch of tech blogs last week made it sound like this refiling would somehow "force" the RIAA (and MediaSentry) to open up the details of how it investigates file sharing, that assumes the case actually gets somewhere. Again, while it may be emotionally appealing to accuse the RIAA of racketeering, there needs to be a lot more proof. While it would be fascinating to get the inside details of how these investigations go, unless there's more proof of racketeering, it's not clear this case will get very far at all. Instead of focusing on unlikely to succeed lawsuits against the RIAA, why not focus on leading the industry down the path where it realizes it doesn't need to sue its fans to make money?

Filed Under: racketeering

Judge Dismisses Racketeering Charge Against RIAA

from the quite-a-racket dept

We were pretty skeptical that charges of racketeering would stick to the RIAA when filed a few years ago, so it comes as little surprise to see a judge dismiss the claim. While the complaint could be refiled, the judge's words indicate that it will be quite difficult to make a successful case for racketeering. As emotionally appealing as it would be to see the RIAA found guilty of racketeering, it is a stretch. It's better to focus on what the RIAA is actually doing, rather than trying to paint its actions falsely. The RIAA is filing questionable lawsuits based on flimsy evidence, but that's not quite enough to prove racketeering.

Filed Under: racketeering, riaa
Companies: riaa

Talk Radio Host Accuses Critic Of Copyright Infringement... And Racketeering?

from the for-a-bit-of-criticsm? dept

Radio talk show host Michael Savage apparently isn't as open to accepting criticism as he is in dishing it out. He's suing the Council on American-Islamic Relations for copyright infringement, because CAIR used clips from Savage's show to respond to, and criticize, his statements. That's a perfectly reasonable fair use of copyrighted content. It seems clear that this is merely an attempt to bully and silence a critic. To add even more weight to that claim, Savage isn't just claiming copyright infringement, but racketeering. The reasoning behind the racketeering charge isn't entirely clear (and from the EFF's response about the problems with Savage's filings, it sounds like the reasoning isn't clear to even those who made the racketeering claim), but the idea that posting some radio clips and criticizing them could be seen as racketeering seems pretty ridiculous.

Filed Under: cair, copyright, criticism, michael savage, racketeering

Supreme Court Lets Class Action Racketeering Suit Against Best Buy & Microsoft Move Forward

from the the-not-so-free-paid-trial dept

Way back in 2003, we wrote about accusations that Microsoft and Best Buy were scamming customers into signing up for Microsoft's ISP MSN. The accusation was that Best Buy employees would scan the "free trial" MSN CD-ROMs that were at the store when customers would make a purchase. Customers wouldn't realize it, but the scan would then charge that customer's credit card once the free trial ended, signing them up as fully paying customers. While we wondered how widespread this practice was, some Best Buy employees have come forward to confirm that it was done at times. Both Best Buy and Microsoft have been fighting the case, and an appeal went all the way up to the Supreme Court, trying to get the case thrown out, but the Supreme Court has refused to review it, meaning the case can move forward. Of course, what's left out of much of the coverage is that lawyers working for Best Buy have already admitted to altering some of the documents he handed over in the case, which certainly doesn't bode well for Best Buy. While it's still unclear just how big a "class" this covers, if the two companies really were involved in such an activity, it does seem quite sleazy.

Filed Under: class action, free trial, racketeering
Companies: best buy, microsoft

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.

Filed Under: class action, racketeering, riaa, rico
Companies: riaa