James Delahunty
5 Jun 2007 7:55
Yet another defendant in a copyright infringement case brought by the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) crackdown on file sharing has decided to fight back with strong accusations. Suzy Del Cid has filed a counterclaim against the trade group that mirrors one filed by Tanya Andersen in October 2005. UMG v. Del Cid is being heard in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Del Cid has accused the RIAA of computer trespass, conspiracy, extortion, and violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in her counterclaim. It claims that, "these record companies hired unlicensed private investigators—in violation of various state laws—who receive a bounty to invade private computers and private computer networks to obtain information—in the form of Internet Protocol ('IP') addresses—allowing them to identify the computers and computer networks that they invaded."
Of course, if Del Cid had a shared folder on KaZaa, she may have a hard time convincing the court that MediaSentry trespassed. However, she did allege that the RIAA used private investigators unlicensed by the state of Florida to track her online activities in violation of Florida law. She also claims that the RIAA violated Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by "knowingly collecting an unlawful consumer debt," referring to the Settlement Support Center's attempts to settle the case before the lawsuit was filed.
Source:
Ars Technica