A mom coutersues RIAA

This is actually big news, since only a handful of the some 15,000 people sued by the RIAA for file-sharing have actually countersued. Most have settled with the RIAA out of court, paying the RIAA several thousand dollars. In this case, a single mother in Oregon, Tanya Andersen, accused of "illegally downloading 1,400 gangsta rap tunes is countersuing the music industry for allegedly violating Oregon's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO)," Internet News reports. The RIAA is seeking more than $1 million in damages, but Anderson says she never downloaded a single song. Her lawyer told Internet News that "Andersen contacted the Settlement Support Center [a company created by the RIAA to work out settlements with the targets of its litigation] and professed her innocence. The Center claims there is evidence Andersen downloaded songs at 4:30 a.m. under the log-in name of 'gotenkito.' Andersen again denied the claim, said she had never used or heard of the log-in name in question and asked that the Settlement Support Center." Please see the article for what happened next.