RIAA Faces First Class Action Lawsuit

After years of suing grandmothers, children, and the deceased, the RIAA is finally facing some payback for its inane approach to increasing its revenues: Disabled mother Tanya Andersen is launching the first class action lawsuit against the RIAA and the Big 4 record labels for a variety of causes, ranging from negligence and fraud to intentional infliction of emotional distress and RICO racketeering violations.

Given that the RIAA has sued roughly 30,000 people to date, it's hard not to imagine she'll find some takers who want to hop aboard the bandwagon and put an end to the group's often malicious and always tragically misguided lawsuits.

Andersen is one of the few people who have gotten into a courtroom with the RIAA (most of those sued have settled). After a two-year battle, the case against her and her eight-year-old daughter (at the time of the filing) was recently dismissed. Her counterclaims have been ongoing, but her class action suit is a new addition to the mix.

In an unrelated case, another RIAA lawsuit defendant, Michelle Santangelo, is suing AOL and a family friend: She was targeted by the RIAA, she says, for KaZaA software that the friend installed without her knowledge. But she's also holding AOL accountable, saying it should have filtered any potentially illegal traffic from going over its network. Interesting case, though probably not one she'll win; I'm sure AOL's terms of service note that it does not filter traffic, no matter what you're doing.

Regardless, it's nice to see some of the victims of these lawsuits striking back. The RIAA has had free rein in the legal system for far too long, and it's time it started defending its actions instead of just being left alone to make accusations through its freewheeling, strong-arm tactics. Go Tanya!

LINK: RIAA named in first class action