This is yet another case folks where the RIAA have brought a case against a person with virtually no evidence of what they claim, and then seek to back out leaving the victim to pay legal fee's.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061026-8085.htmlThe RIAA has decided it wants to drop another copyright infringement case, but the defendant is fighting back. Warner v. Stubbs began like so many of the file-sharing cases. MediaSentry found shared music on Kazaa and the IP address was traced to Tallie Stubbs of Oklahoma. After settlement talks proved futile, Warner Bros., UMG, Sony Music, and Arista Records filed suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on July 25, 2006.
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.
When the RIAA decides to drop a case, it will file for dismissal without prejudice. If the motion is made prior to the defendant filing an answer to the complaint or a counterclaim, that's the end of the case. The RIAA extricates itself from a case it decided was unwinnable and the defendant is left holding the bag for attorney's fees. In Warner v. Stubbs, the defendant filed an answer and counterclaim seeking affirmative relief before the RIAA filed a motion
It seems they are pulling out of more and more cases folks, evidence is either non existent or wrong and those sued are left to pick up the cost of RIAA extortion teams who drive up the lawyers fees by dragging the case out before withdrawing.
This abuse of the legal process is morally wrong and unacceptable, lets see the US courts take action to protect the innocent against big business sponsored extortion, this is not the first case the RIAA has lost and its about time a class action was launched against the RIAA for supporting the enforcement of an illegal monopoly over the music industry and to prevent them sponsoring financial terrorism against US citizens.
Most of you here are unaware of a simple detail that I find telling regarding their own morals, the RIAA talks about money being lost to US record labels but pays
no tax itself, not a single cent do they put back into the government coffers, lets see this pressure group treated like any other other business and force them to pay their dues, rather than allow them to use those financial savings to fund extortion attempts.