Tanya Andersen Files Amended Complaint Against RIAA

The lawyer for RIAA target Tanya Andersen has filed his latest complaint against the record labels that sued his client for allegedly sharing music files on the Kazaa network.

As we reported earlier, the lawsuit could force the Recording Industry Association of America to reveal secrets about its investigations and expose the RIAA and its third-party investigative partner MediaSentry to scrutiny about whether their probes of alleged file sharers are legal.

The complaint, filed Friday by Andersen's lawyer, Lory Lybeck, is 108 pages long. Listening Post obtained a copy (.pdf) that you can work your way through as we try to find a lawyer to analyze the document in depth [update below]. From an initial glance, Andersen (pictured) still appears to be pursuing class-action status for the case.

Other details and claims:

• The RIAA admitted that, "When you fish with a net, you catch a few dolphins," in reference to its apparent misidentification of Andersen as Kazaa user "gotenkito," who had apparently been sharing music without permission.
• The RIAA's process for investigating file sharers is an illegal "nationwide conspiracy of crime" resulting in anonymous lawsuits that "clog the courts."
• The "sham debt collectors" employed by the RIAA, "manned in large part by retired police officers," provided an "air of authority," in a second effort to coerce and extort payment from mostly innocent individuals.

These are some heady claims, and I've only read up to the sixth page so far.

New complaint in Andersen v. RIAA (.pdf)

Update: Mike Ratuzo, a lawyer and law professor for the University of Oregon, sent us the following analysis:

The claims as described in the Amended Complaint deal with negligence,
intentional infliction of emotional distress, RICO, wrongful initiation
of civil proceedings, abuse of legal process, defamation, unlawful trade
practices, fraud, invasion of privacy, computer fraud and abuse,
trespass and others. Of interest, the Amended Complaint purports to
quote from other judges in other RIAA cases suggesting that the RIAA
claims have little merit. Indeed, there is a general reference to "sham
claims." Also of interest, there is a quote from Magistrate Judge
Ashmanskas from the Oregon federal court to the effect that the record
labels' first case against Andersen was "objectively unreasonable."

This is only an Amended Complaint and the parties will have to engage in
discovery in order to determine what is correct and what is not
supportable.

The Amended Complaint follows the similar path as commenced in the
initial complaint, although the style of the claims appears to be
cleaned up a bit, probably due to Judge Brown's legal instruction at the
last motion hearing. In that the claims are very broad and far reaching,
I expect that the type of discovery that Andersen will be seeking will
also be very broad and far reaching, including discovery going to the
heart of how the record labels conduct their anti-piracy program,
investigate their claims, verify the accuracy of the investigation and
claims, determine a demand amount, transfer the settlement finds between
entities, etc.

**

(image from marketplace)

See also:

• Lawsuit Could Force RIAA to Reveal Secrets
• Tanya Andersen Files Class-Action Suit Against the RIAA
• RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000
• RIAA Training Video Leaked onto Torrent Sites (Updated)
• RIAA Nastygrams 13 New Schools