2006-10-26

back at ya, music nazis

Good news from the electronic frontier today as the RIAA gets handed its hat, and a countersuit as well. The Music Nazis fouled up their motion to dismiss in the case of Tallie Stubbs and apparently Tallie's counsel picked up on the error.

I understand very little legalese, but here's the relevant quote from ARS Technica...

After "further investigation," according to a plaintiff's court filing, the record labels decided to dismiss the case. However, they requested that the case be dismissed without prejudice and with prejudice. Likely due to a typographical error, the distinction is important. Dismissal without prejudice means that the action can be brought again in the future. If a case is dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be refiled and the defendant may be named the "prevailing party" and be eligible for attorney's fees and court costs from the plaintiffs, which is what happened in the case of Capitol Records v. Foster.


and, so Stubbs filed for dismissal with prejudice...

If Tallie Stubbs wins her motion for dismissal with prejudice, then she, too, will be considered the prevailing party and will be eligible for attorney's fees and other court costs from the RIAA. More importantly, it would put the RIAA in the position of having lost one of their file-sharing-related copyright infringement case—none of which have yet gone to trial.


Which is cool. Read the full article at Ars Technica.

Go get 'em Tallie!



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