RIAA sued for malicious prosecution

Oregon mother files suit claiming 'repulsive accusations'

Written by Iain Thomson

An Oregon mother has filed suit against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) after the organisation withdrew a two-year legal case against her for alleged file sharing.

Tanya Andersen and her eight year-old daughter were charged with downloading gangster rap and other music.

Andersen, who is disabled and a single mother, denied the claims and the RIAA decided to drop the case earlier this month.

The woman has now filed papers to sue not only the RIAA but MediaSentry, a firm which collects evidence of alleged file sharing activity.

Andersen claimed that she asked the RIAA investigators to check out her computer for illegally obtained material, but that they preferred to take legal action, claiming that they knew the time of the file sharing and the user name she was using.

"Instead of dismissing their false claims the defendant record companies persisted in their malicious prosecution and publicly libelled her with demeaning and repulsive accusations," the court papers read.

"She has no interest in the violent, profane, misogynistic and racist music that the RIAA and its controlling member companies monopolise."

The RIAA then agreed to inspect Andersen's computer and found no trace of any shared music nor the software to do so.

Nevertheless, the RIAA still asked for payment and demanded that Andersen's daughter stand trial with her.

The RIAA was also accused of telephoning the child's school and asking to speak to her by pretending to be her grandmother.

If the RIAA loses this case, and others, it could open the floodgates to similar cases and force the organisation to rethink its policy.

Tags:

Further reading

RIAA sued for extortion

Del Cid bites back   More...

RIAA denies trillion dollar lawsuit

Commentators 'just doing the math' in Russian copyright case   More...

RIAA stung by wrongfully accused 'pirate'

Defendant to get 'reasonable fees' as RIAA case collapses   More...

RIAA launches piracy payment website

Designed to tackle illegal P2P activity by university students   More...

Related articles

RIAA case dismissed as 'speculation'

Judge tells trade body to offer better evidence on P2P pirates   More...

RIAA sued for extortion

Del Cid bites back   More...

Granny sues RIAA for unlawful investigation

Texan woman accuses trade body of 'extortion'   More...

Woman charged over MySpace suicide

Lori Drew indicted on federal charges   More...

Do you agree?

Advertisement

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Watch

16 May 2008

2.97 MBXP on OLPC, broken dreams and Yahoo fights back More...

15 May 2008

3.28 MBDark fibre, mobile TV and solar power More...

14 May 2008

2.66 MBOnline inequality, mobile thumbprints and corporate raids More...

Poll

HOME WORKING

HOME WORKING

Do you let any or all of your employees work from home?

Previous poll results

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Spotlight

OLPC

OLPC to ship with Windows XP

Microsoft teams up with One Laptop per Child project   More...

The Sims

The Sims goes flat-pack with Ikea

Virtual world gets Swedish wood   More...

Advertisement

Microsoft-Yahoo

Yahoo board fights back at Icahn

Investor accused of 'significant misunderstanding' in Microsoft saga   More...

MySpace

Woman charged over MySpace suicide

Lori Drew indicted on federal charges   More...

Advertisement