RIAA pays File Sharer $107,951

Single mum Tanya Andersen and her daughter, Kylee, have come to epitomize the victims of the Big 4’s RIAA as the labels continue to pursue their hopeless course of trying to sue consumers around the world into buying their formulaic, cookie-cutter ‘product’.

She and her lawyers, Lory Lybeck and Ben Justus, beat the labels and their enforcer to a standstill, and a judge ordered them to pay the price.

But as some have pointed out, reimbursement for legal fees doesn't compensate Ms. Andersen for the other damages she's sustained. And that's where Phase II comes in, Andersen v. Atlantic. There the shoe is on the other foot, and Tanya is one doing the hunting, as she pursues the record companies and their running dogs for malicious prosecution.

If you read a mainstream media news report about file sharing or talk to a reporter about (illicit) filesharing, you would think that the only case involving the RIAA was Capitol V Thomas, a case that made news nationwide for the size of the fines. However, there are a number of cases going on around the country, cases where the RIAA did not win.

Copyright law, like most other aspects of civil law, allows for the prevailing party to recoup legal fees and costs incurred in the case.