In August of 2005 Tanya Andersen's life was turned upside down by the RIAA.

1.2 On August 26, 2005, while Tanya Andersen and her 8 year-old daughter were sitting down to dinner a legal process server knocked on her door. When she answered the door, she was served with a lawsuit filed by RIAA-controlled music distribution companies in a federal court. Ms. Andersen was shocked, afraid, and very distressed. The lawsuit falsely claimed that she owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to these companies as penalties for copyright infringement. Ms. Andersen knew that she was completely innocent of the charges against her. She answered the false claims and asserted counterclaims seeking damages. During discovery, Ms. Andersen learned that the lawsuit filed against her was based solely upon an illegal, flawed and negligent investigation. Almost two years later, on the even of summary judgment, the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. Ms. Andersen's counterclaims continue in that case. Those counterclaims are restated here as direct claims. New claims are also set forth here against the former plaintiffs in that action and against new additional parties....

Just like Nifong (the hanging DA of the Duke rape case) - it didn't matter that she had proof of innocence. They had decided she was "guilty" and they wanted her to pony up their shakedown money. Can you hear it?... "Proof? We don't need no stinkin' proof!"

Now she has turned around and is suing them!

As I only have the Acrobat Reader - I'm not going to copy and paste the exact wording of what was done to this woman, let me paraphrase just one of the actions:

The RIAA had an email address they claimed belonged to her. Ms. Andersen googled (amazing what you can find if you look), she FOUND the person who was actually sharing the music and gave the information to the RIAA - they didn't want it, they weren't the least bit interested in who was really doing the illegal downloading. (see page 11 of the PDF file) All they wanted was the cash and they weren't going away until she forked over the dough so they could "look" like they won.

The RIAA also tried to tried to force Ms. Andersen's 10 year old daughter Kylee to give a deposition. This part I will quote directly from the PDF file (page 13) because it is so incredibly outrageously disturbing.

5.43 Knowing of her distress, the RIAA and its agents even attempted to directly contact Kylee. They called Ms. Andersen's apartment building looking for Kylee. Phone calls were also made to her former elementary school under false pretenses. The voice of the woman on the phone claimed to be Kylee's grandma inquiring as to her attendance.

Read the rest at the link above.

This is your record industry - harassing a 10 year old child to coerce her mother into paying out cash. If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should. Who are these people that they can circumvent all forms of due process, ignore laws, invade privacy and in general stomp all over private citizens? Who gave them this power? Why are they allowed to operate on a level denied to the police (who are ostensibly trying to keep us safe from violent criminals) all to supposedly stop "copyright infringement"?

In this case one must say "supposedly" because they don't seem to be interested in stopping any real culprits, only extorting money.

I want these people prosecuted. I want them in jail. I want them to be on the losing end of this - big time. These are the actions of criminals. If the law is allowing this for simple copying of music - what comes next?

Hat Tip Slashdot and Groklaw

Posted by: Teresa in Law at 06:37 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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