You couldn’t ask for better PR! Anti-pirates sued Debbie Foster for owning stolen music. She decided to fight back, hired a lawyer, and began legal proceedings. Instead of backing down, the RIAA then decided to sue her daughter. Three years and lots of money later, the RIAA lost the case and now must pay Debbie for her trouble.
The key phrase here is the judge’s ruling that there is no case “holding the mere owner of an Internet account contributorily or vicariously liable for the infringing activities of third persons.” The RIAA appealed, failed, and now has to pay legal fees to Debbie and her daughter and has just entered the dangerous waters of set precedent. Hey, if Mom can fight the RIAA, why can’t we? Get ready for a huge mess in the next few months.
Judge Awards $68,685.23 in Attorneys Fees Against RIAA in Capitol v. Foster [RecordingIndustryvsPeople via Ars]
This is music to my eyes! The RIAA should focus on selling music directly to consumers at a fair price (in other words, forget about $20 CDs, consumers have had enough gouging for a lifetime). Also, they should try to lure people away from video games, the gaming industry has done far more harm than “evil downloaders”. And fighting downloaders is passé…now there are many companies out there that allow people to exchange large files with each other with encryption, freely and easily, thereby hiding the contents of transfers. GigaTribe is a lovely example: http://www.gigatribe.com
But what about the daughter’s case? Did she still lose?
“……The RIAA appealed, failed, and now has to pay legal fees to Debbie and her daughter……….” seems like the daughter won also.
Don’t mess with Mom.
It’s a good news.
BTW, did RIAA apology them?
If the RIAA doesn’t appoligize then maybe mom should rip a copy of Brenda Lees “I’m sorry” from Bit Torrent
Sure enough, those whom have lots of money, power and control, (in this case, RIAA), have gone up against an independent, free-spirited mind.
I hope “Mom” lives long enough to actually collect! These cheap corporate dingbats have a real problem with not paying in a timely manner, and instead keeping the matter in the courts for years with appeals, etc.
RIAA bites.