Friday, June 22, 2007

Dawnell Leadbetter Moves for Attorneys Fees

Dawnell Leadbetter, the successful defendant in Interscope v. Leadbetter, has brought a motion for attorneys fees against the record company plaintiffs, Interscope Records, Capitol Records, SONY BMG, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, and Virgin Records.

The RIAA's case against her had been dismissed in December, on the plaintiffs' own motion, with the Court indicating that it was retaining jurisdiction over the matter "to hear collateral issues like the imposition of costs and fees at a later date after the voluntary dismissal [of] this action."

Defendant's memorandum of law in support of motion for attorneys fees*

* Document published online at Internet Law & Regulation

Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net
Slashdot
Tekel
Digg

Digg!

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

1 comment:

AMD FanBoi said...

I hope this costs the RIAA dearly.

What is distressing to this outside observer, is just how hard one must struggle to gain recompense for a clearly wrongly targeted and zealously pursued suit. A suit that seemed determined to "punish" the defendant for daring to defend one's self by the infliction of onerous legal fees beyond the ability of most individuals to bear. Only richly funded companies can so recklessly (mis)use the courts in this manner because their lives are not ruined, or severely damaged if they lose. It's not their personal money, assets, reputation, house, livelihood, or food on the table at risk.

I look at it and say immediately that, of course Dawnell Leadbetter & Donald Leadbetter deserve every penny back paid by them in defending themselves in this suit. This is a no-brainer. So why the need for 14 pages of long, convoluted argument to explain such an obvious righting of an injustice? And I'm sure this is only the start of the RIAA's intransigence towards anyone who opposes them in the least small manner.

It is highly unfortunate here that punitive damages cannot be assessed against the RIAA-controlled Plaintiffs. About a millions dollars for each case they lose in this manner would be a good starting point.

It's nice that the judge in Foster wrote such a clear decision.