RIAA Accused Of Investigative Abuses

File sharers take note, a woman mistakenly sued for illegal downloading may be about to force the RIAA to disclose their investigative techniques.

Things will get very ugly over the next few months for the RIAA, if one disgruntled file sharing lawsuit victim gets her way.

Tanya Andersen, the single mother who filed a countersuit against the RIAA after the organization mistakenly sued her for sharing music online, is attempting to hold it responsible for all sorts of heavy infractions ("RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of 'outrage,' and deceptive business practices").

According to Mike Ratoza, a copyright lawyer with Bullivant, Houser and Bailey who teaches at the University of Oregon, Andersen is close to forcing the RIAA into the discovery phase of her countersuit. During that discovery phase, the RIAA could be forced to release potentially incriminating details about its techniques for investigating alleged file sharers.