In 2004 the RIAA sued a single mom, Tanya Andersen, for downloading gangsta rap tunes. In 2005, Tanya, coutersued the RIAA after they tried to contact her 10 year old daughter at school by impersonating her grandmother and called her apartment demanding to take the daughter’s deposition.
On June 1st of this year the RIAA dropped the lawsuit against Andersen, being unable to provide evidence that she illegally downloaded copyright material.
Also named in the countersuit is MediaSentry (now owned by SafeNet), a firm used by the RIAA to identify individuals suspected of illegally swapping copyright music online. The suit alleges MediaSentry is known to misidentify people and also cannot determine if files made available for download contain copyright material, or are mislabeled, or are inoperative or decoy works.
Although the story is about two weeks old I just found it and thought it might be interesting to some people, particularly after the Sued by the RIAA thread.
Anderson is suing under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization act, which generally requires that you show that the organization’s purpose is criminal in nature.
Hyperbole aside, I believe it will be very difficult for her to show that the primary purpose of the RIAA is criminal.
Bricker, I think you’re missing something - reading the linked article, it’s from a UK paper. I have to wonder whether the woman is in the US. And if she’s not in the US, but in the UK, RICO has nothing to do with it.
ETA: Or at least that’s my understanding - RICO is specifically US only. If it is reciprocal on the international scene, my apologies for this nit picking.
While the Register may be based in the UK, the writer of the article is based in San Francisco. The article itself notes that the deposition was filed in Portland, Oregon. The article also has a link to the original deposition, which notes that the plaintiff Tanya Anderson as well as her daughter are residents of Beaverton, Oregon. The claims filed under both RICO and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. There’s also a claim under the Oregon Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
Aren’t RICO and it’s Oregon counterpart criminal statutes, and as such can be used only by government law enforcement in criminal cases? How can they be sued by an individual using these?
In addition to Criminal RICO prosecutions, RICO permits private individuals to sue for damages caused by racketeering activities.
Under the statute, you are entitled to received treble damages (i.e., you will get a judgment for three times the damages you prove), which makes it a popular claim to bring, particularly if a garden variety fraud claim can be alleged to violate several criminal statutes. Because it can be difficult to prove all of the elements of RICO, and adding it seriously complicate a suit, there are special rules in many courts about pleading RICO.