Debbie Foster, the woman in Oklahoma sued by the RIAA who asked for and won a motion for summary judgment, has finally filed her motion asking the court to force the RIAA to reimburse her attorney's fees. The filing is pretty harshly worded and calls into question the RIAA's motives on rather serious grounds. Citing "Improper motivation" and "other bad faith conduct", the motion asks the court to rule that the RIAA was predatory in its execution of the case against Ms. Foster. The filing stops slightly short of accusing the RIAA of extortion, and in doing so is about as close to "yo momma... " snaps as you can get in a legal document.
"the true motivation for the filing of the instant suit can be gleaned from the evidence in the district court file. Thus rather than pursuing resolution of a fairly minor dispute in good faith ... plaintiffs and their council filed and maintained this suit in order to extract a significant payment from perceived "Deep Pocket" defendant, Debbie Foster"
It's not exactly as spicy as saying, "The RIAA wanted to check some big scrilla so they hit up this chick with a lawsuit that had no basis" but, it's about as close as we'll ever see in legalese.
The court's response to this should be very interesting. After the research I did while writing The RIAA vs John Doe: A Layperson's Guide to Filesharing Lawsuits, I hope the court not only awards her a stack of bills, I also hope this sets precedent for other cases to end in the same way.
Update: There is also this filing, by another attorney validating Foster's attorney's claims for $200/hour. I've been unable to find a total dollar figure or the number of hours Foster is seeking in payment from the RIAA. Rest assured, it's a big number.
1. Sweet!
I only hope she gets all the money she spent back, and hopefully more!
The RIAA deserves a huge punch in the face for suing innocent people, who are also their customers.
Posted at 5:47PM on Aug 8th 2006 by Jose Andrade