Culver City (CA) - RIAA's legal team is spiraling into disaster as a judge has ruled that an Oklahoma mother is entitled to get billing records and timesheets from the RIAA. Debbie Foster wants the records to help her calculate how much the RIAA has spent in attorneys fees after their failed attempt to sue Foster. The judge has ruled that the RIAA has until March 26th to cough up the documents.
In 2004, Debbie Foster was sued by the RIAA for allegedly illegally downloading pirated songs from peer to peer networks. Foster argued that she had nothing to do with the downloads, but the RIAA persisted and eventually added Debbie's daughter, Amanda, to the lawsuit.
Usually most people settle with the RIAA for a few thousand dollars, but Debbie took the case to court and asked for the RIAA to produce records of what files she supposedly downloaded, along with the dates of the downloads. The RIAA couldn't produce the records and offered to withdraw the case.
Now here is where it gets interesting, Debbie asked to be awarded reasonable attorneys fees for her ordeal and submitted her expenses to the court. The RIAA argued that the mother was asking for too much, to which the judge basically said, "Well if you think her fees are too much, show me yours."
Presumably any records that are submitted will become public record, something the RIAA would probably not want to have happen. If their legal costs per case are very low, then it shows that the organization isn't doing much research before it sues. But if the costs are high, then it could persuade the judge to award Debbie with a much larger sum for her troubles.
You can read the entire court order here.
