Judge Sides With RIAA in ‘Sham’ Litigation Class Action

Submitted by MacRonin on November 21, 2009 - 4:32pm

Judge Sides With RIAA in ‘Sham’ Litigation Class Action: Via Threat Level.

A judge has dealt a major blow to a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the Recording Industry Association of America’s nearly 6-year-old courthouse campaign against file sharers amounts to nothing more than “sham” litigation.

The judge ruled that the RIAA has the right to bring civil lawsuits and is protected under a legal doctrine allowing trade groups to protect the interests of their members. The RIAA, the judge added, had an “objective basis” to bring lawsuits against individuals (.pdf) connected to IP addresses over which file sharing is occurring.

“The court, therefore, concludes on this record that plaintiff has not established defendants filed a series of lawsuits based on a policy of initiating legal proceedings without regard to the merits,” U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown of Oregon wrote Thursday.

Brown, however, did not immediately dismiss the proposed class action that represents the estimated 30,000 individuals the RIAA has sued, although her ruling seems to suggest that a dismissal is coming.

“In summary, the court concludes defendant’s conduct in initiating the first action against plaintiff is protected by the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, and, therefore, defendants are entitled to summary judgment with respect to all of plaintiffs claims to the extent they arise out of defendants’ initiation of the first action,” Brown wrote.

She ordered the RIAA and plaintiff’s lawyers to report to her, by Dec. 1, what should happen next.

The RIAA has maintained that if it won on the claim decided Thursday — one of four in the lawsuit — that the entire case should be dismissed.

Lory Lybek, the class-action attorney in the case, does not agree. In a telephone interview, he said the court could proceed with a class action, in which the lawsuit’s other allegations can be litigated. Those allegations include civil conspiracy, abuse of legal process and negligence.

Tanya Andersen of Oregon brought the proposed class action. The RIAA dropped an infringement case against her in 2007 after concluding her hard drive did not contain purloined music tracks as believed. The RIAA initially claimed a Kazaa directory that linked to her internet-protocol address was unlawfully distributing thousands of songs.

A judge awarded her $68,685 in legal fees, and she counter-sued with the proposed class action, alleging the RIAA has engaged in a game of “sham” litigation.

Illustration: Geek&Poke

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