RIAA Ordered To Cover Defendant's Legal Fees

The RIAA, after suffering a string of high profile loses in court and other legal setbacks, was just ordered to pay $70,000 in legal fees for someone they tried (unsuccessfully) to sue. Now that is funny!

Until Monday's ruling in this case, called Capitol v. Foster, the Recording Industry Association of America had never been ordered to pay attorneys' fees as part of its ongoing battle against allegedly illicit file swapping, according to attorney Ray Beckerman, who has been tracking such suits at the blog Recording Industry vs The People.

Must be nice to have $70k laying around to argue for principle with the chance of losing it all.


Glad she won. RIAA will sooner or later realize that suing people is not the most profitable endeavor.. especially considering that their lawyers had costs too that was wasted on this.

haha thats awesome. theres been a lot of good stories of the RIAA getting shafted lately. hope it keeps up!

I can't imagine the RIAA is recuperating any money with this. I mean just paying the lawyers and the support staff must cost a fortune. Yet they get a couple of thousands of $ from 1 person but just the lawyers fees must be 10x that...

Weird way of doing business...

Originally Posted by syntx

I can't imagine the RIAA is recuperating any money with this. I mean just paying the lawyers and the support staff must cost a fortune. Yet they get a couple of thousands of $ from 1 person but just the lawyers fees must be 10x that...

Weird way of doing business...

They probably have a cheap in-house legal team who basically writes up templates for their extortion letters.

I by no means condone the sharing of music but crap like this makes me want to copy all of my CDs (except Weird Al) and give them out like candy at Halloween. I like Weird Al. Especially his song "Don't Download This Song." Very funny.

I thought the RIAA was a law firm

This news made my day.
Glad to see our legal system is working properly.

Originally Posted by CaptNumbNutz

This news made my day.
Glad to see our legal system is working properly.

QFT, the RIAA's legal actions on this have been like firing a shotgun in a crowded room while blindfolded.

I am glad to see innocent people getting their money back from legal fees (well, they don't but they don't have to pay their lawyers for wrongful suits). I wonder if this person will sue for defamatory and wrongful suit?

Originally Posted by anthrex

I thought the RIAA was a law firm

No, they just try to be.

Originally Posted by syntx

I can't imagine the RIAA is recuperating any money with this.

They were never concerned about getting money, it was the instilling the fear of God into people downloading music and protecting their revenue stream.

5 years ago..."what's an RIAA?"

Today...."everyone knows you might be the next to be sued"

Ther problem is that, in the process, it has made them one of the most hated entities on the planet and people LOVE hearing these types of stories. So their methods are starting to backfire and pretty soon, more and more people will be giving them the "big finger" all the while the age of digital downloads will be passing them by.

What is the old saying? "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster" ...they've become the monster.

If I'm innocent of the crime, it shouldn't have to cost me 70K to prove my innocence. How many people have that kind of money anyway......not many. Maybe now they'll look before they leap.

Originally Posted by CaptNumbNutz

This news made my day.
Glad to see our legal system is working properly.

Good news indeed. Looks like the RIAA just had another lawsuit backfire on them. Now its their turn to pay (literally!)

Originally Posted by kittmaster

If I'm innocent of the crime, it shouldn't have to cost me 70K to prove my innocence. How many people have that kind of money anyway......not many. Maybe now they'll look before they leap.

QFT

Originally Posted by kittmaster

If I'm innocent of the crime, it shouldn't have to cost me 70K to prove my innocence. How many people have that kind of money anyway......not many. Maybe now they'll look before they leap.

This is why its amazing that America is the only developed nation that doesn't have a no fault petty suit system. Basically EVERYWHERE else, if I sue you and lose, I pay your legal bills full stop. You don't have to argue in court to get your money back, I just get your bill.

Originally Posted by Scar1.8T

This is why its amazing that America is the only developed nation that doesn't have a no fault petty suit system. Basically EVERYWHERE else, if I sue you and lose, I pay your legal bills full stop. You don't have to argue in court to get your money back, I just get your bill.

This would lead to a lot fewer frivolous lawsuits, IMO.

Originally Posted by SEALTeamSix

This would lead to a lot fewer frivolous lawsuits, IMO.

No doubt. And places like New Zealand don't even HAVE personal injury lawsuits, or so I hear. I wonder what a world with personal responsibility would look like...

This is definitely good news for the little guy. And if you're lucky, you can get one of those law firms who only charges court costs if you win. Granted, you won't take much away, but at least you won't lose anything except a retainer.

Originally Posted by LeTUOtter

I wonder what a world with personal responsibility would look like...

Woah easy there fella... imagining a world such as that would make too sense!

Originally Posted by LeTUOtter

I wonder what a world with personal responsibility would look like...

It might sound good in theory, but really, who's going to pay my medical bills (+15000%) after I pour a pot of boiling water over my head? How was I supposed to know that it would hurt? The people that make my stove need to tell me this things ahead of time!

Originally Posted by Ockie

Woah easy there fella... imagining a world such as that would make too sense!

"Woah there, that's dangerous thinking. You best stick to your work." - the two guys talking in Peter Griffin's head when he had a hangover in season 1.