When letters threatening lawsuits arrived at Ohio University, three of every four students accused of copyright infringement paid their $3,000 fines and moved on. The 25 who did not now face legal uncertainty as the recording industry begins taking steps to discover their identity.
Lawyers for John Does across the country have argued, for a variety of reasons and with mixed success, that their client's personal information shouldn't be available to the recording industry. Recording industry lawyers consistently argue that they have identified music sharers and are seeking to recover damages under copyright law.
In Virginia, a judge denied a motion that would have allowed the recording industry to seek the names of network users at the College of William and Mary, whose IP addresses, the recording industry said, had been sharing copyrighted music.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison, which declined to forward pre-litigation letters in March, was forced to release the personal information of more than 50 of its students in an April decision.
When recipients of pre-litigation settlement letters don't respond ' or a university chooses not to forward such letters ' lawyers for the recording industry work to obtain subpoenas that force universities to match IP addresses to student names, which are then turned over to the recording industry.
Denver law firm Holme Roberts and Owen, retained by the recording industry to handle file sharing cases and whose letterhead appears on pre-litigation letters, referred comment to the Recording Industry Association of America.
I am specifically not authorized to speak on the record
said Richard L. Gabriel, lead national counsel for the RIAA, adding that it is standard practice for him to defer to clients for media inquiries.
Many lawyers have taken student cases for free in the hopes of recovering attorney fees.
A judge awarded almost $70,000 in fees to Debbie Foster on July 16, more than a year after she won her case against seven record labels that accused her of copyright infringement. It was the first time any defendant had recovered attorney fees.
The significance of the Foster case is other lawyers in other states have copied our claims and counterclaims much to the dismay of the RIAAG? and record labels said Marilyn Barringer-Thompson, Foster's attorney since late 2004. She added that Foster swore under oath in April 2005 that she hadn't shared the files, and they should have dismissed the case against her then.
But the case isn't finished. The recording industry's lawyers may appeal and they have already taken action against Foster's daughter, Amanda.
As a result of the Foster case, Barringer-Thompson has become involved in other file sharing litigation. She is representing Oklahoma State University students who received pre-litigation letters on April 11 and haven't settled with the recording industry.
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