Thursday, May 15, 2008

Tanya Andersen awarded $107,834 in attorneys fees

In Atlantic v. Andersen, Tanya Andersen has been awarded attorneys fees against the record companies in the amount of $107,834.00.

This is the largest attorneys fee award against the RIAA to date, eclipsing the $68,685 award obtained in Capitol v. Foster.

Jon Newton of p2pnet.net, who has been covering the Tanya Andersen case from Day 1, writes:

RIAA nemisis Tanya Andersen has achieved another milestone victory.

She fought Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA to a standstill, forcing it to drop its spurious file sharing case against her, and now an Oregon court has awarded her close to $108,000 in fees and costs.

The amount, the highest ever, also signals what is in effect a default victory for other lawyers representing RIAA victims.

It means they now know they’ll be able to proceed with counterclaims bolstered by the knowledge they’ll be paid their work.
Complete article

May 14, 2008, Opinion and Order awarding defendant $107,834.00 in attorneys fees*

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

Commentary & discussion:

The Oregonian
TechDirt
The Consumerist
Slyck
p2pnet.net (5/19/08)
EFF Deep Links
Billboard


Digg!



Keywords: digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this actually cover her lawyers fees? In this day and age, $100,000 seems rather paltry. Am I wrong?
RJ

Anonymous said...

It's clearly not enough. Either lawyers completely overvalue their work, never expecting to get paid more than a fraction of it - or the courts who set these awards don't feel the lawyers are honest in their billings and trim them back at every possible opportunity.

Or perhaps the courts generally feel sympathy for the Plaintiffs when they lose, and don't want to add financial insult to injury - although this award certainly doesn't hurt the RIAA in the least.

-DM

SpinningCycle said...

Does my calculator not work? Page 30 under "Fees Awarded" the court seems to allow 25.5 hours for Paralegals at $120 per hour for a total of $948? I calculate $3,060.

But who really cares about an extra $2k, right?

-Mike

Anonymous said...

Looking at p15, $948 appears to be the correct figure - the claimed hours were reduced by 25.5h rather than to 25.5h.

-RE

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Tanya and to the others in future cases that are helped by this win against the RIAA's "campaign of terror"!

Regards,
Art