Copyright Law

Amended complaint filed in Andersen v. Atlantic class action

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

Tanya Andersen has filed her amended complaint in her class action, Andersen v. Atlantic.

The 109-page document provides a detailed description of some of the RIAA abuses, and contains 18 claims for relief, including Federal and State RICO claims, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, and fraud.

The suit targets the record companies, MediaSentry, Settlement Support Center LLC, and the RIAA.

The complaint begins:

1.1 For nearly three years of her life, Tanya Andersen and her young daughter were subjected to an outrageous series of baseless accusations and unrelenting threats of financial ruin. The world?s four major recording studios had devised an illegal enterprise intent on maintaining their virtually complete monopoly over the distribution of recorded music. The enterprise is conducted with total disregard for innocent individuals. Dead people have been sued. Children have been sued. People without computers have been sued. As a senior RIAA spokeswoman explained: ?When you fish with a net, you are going to catch a few dolphins?. By their own early admission, they were knowingly engaged in a ?driftnet fishing? operation and ?innocent dolphins? were the collateral damage in their ?nets?.

Nationwide Conspiracy of Crime

1.2 In 2003 and before, the Big 4 recording companies conspired with the enforcement/lobbying arm of the music cartel -- the RIAA -- and MediaSentry to devise an investigation scheme that was both illegal and seriously flawed. The scheme was based on secret private investigations by unlicensed, unregistered and uncertified private investigators. These private investigators claim to have illegally entered the hard drives of tens of thousands of private American citizens to look for music recordings stored there. This personal invasion is a crime in virtually every state in the country. If music was ?discovered? through this illegal process, the private investigators would then sell the identity of the computers? internet protocol address to the RIAA and the Big 4 record companies.

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on March 15, 2008 (boomark / email).