Copyright Law

Excellent story in Business Week on the Tanya Andersen case

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

An excellent story has come out in Business Week on the Tanya Andersen case:

Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?

Inside Tanya Andersen's private war with the recording industry. Hint: She's winning

Photo by Brian Smale
Andersen got the piracy case against her dropped; now she's going after the RIAA for conspiracy

by Heather Green

When Tanya Andersen opens the door to her modest apartment in suburban Portland, Ore., her Maltese-terrier mix, Tazz, runs over and wags his tail in a friendly hello. The 45-year-old single mother doesn't seem like much of a fighter. She spends most of her days sitting on an overstuffed sofa with a heating pad behind her back to ease chronic pain and migraines that have kept her on disability for nearly five years. Her voice is soft and halting. Yet this woman is behind a fierce assault on the music industry and its tactics for combating music piracy on the Internet. "I've just got to keep doing what I believe is right," she says, with Tazz curled up next to her on the couch. "And that's fighting and letting people know what's happening."

After being sued by the music industry for stealing songs and winning the case's dismissal, Andersen is now taking the record industry to court. Her case is aimed at exposing investigative practices that are controversial and may be illegal, according to the lawsuit. One company hired by the record industry, she claims, snoops through people's computers, uncovering private files and photos, even though it has no legal right to do so. A different industry-backed company uses tactics similar to those of debt collectors, pressuring people to pay thousands of dollars in settlements even before any wrongdoing is proven. In Andersen's case, the industry's Settlement Support Center said that unless she paid $4,000 to $5,000 immediately, it would "ruin her financially," the suit alleges.

Andersen is going after the recording industry under conspiracy laws. She argues the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade group, and its affiliates worked together on a broad campaign to intimidate people into making financial payoffs. The defendants "secretly met and conspired" to develop a "litigation enterprise" with the ultimate goal of preserving the major record companies' control over the music business. Andersen is requesting class action status for her case, seeking at least $5 million in compensation for the class.

For the best in-depth background on the ordeal of the Tanya Andersen family, see the incredible coverage by Jon Newton of p2pnet.net, who's been covering this story regularly since 2005. Apart from keeping his readers abreast of the key legal developments, Jon's coverage has given us all important and moving insights into the human toll the RIAA's litigations have taken on America's families, and the harm they are doing to our country.

There are probably over a hundred articles; here's just a partial list:

The We're Not Taking Any More Club
RIAA, Tanya Andersen: 3rd amended complaint
RIAA named in first class action
Tanya Andersen sues the RIAA
Tanya Andersen takes the RIAA head-on
Tanya Andersen beats the RIAA
RIAA vs Kylee Andersen, 10

Keywords: digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property

Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).