Granny Sues RIAA Over Unlicensed Investigator

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "An elderly, non-file-sharing grandmother from East Texas, who had been sued by the RIAA after being displaced by Hurricane Rita, has sought leave to file counterclaims against the RIAA record companies for using unlicensed investigators. In her counterclaims (PDF) Ms. Crain claims that the record companies 'entered into an agreement with a private investigations company to provide investigative services which led to the production of evidence to be used in court against counterclaim plaintiff, including the identification of an IP address on the basis of which counterclaim defendants filed their suit... [They] were at the time of this agreement aware that the aforementioned private investigations company was unlicensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas specifically, and in other states as well... [T]hey agreed between themselves and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign... [T]he private investigations company hired by plaintiffs engaged in one or more overt acts of unlawful private investigation... Such actions constitute civil conspiracy under Texas common law.'"

Comments

Re:Grandma's are young now adays...

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Q: How do you know if a southern woman is a virgin?

A: Can she outrun her brothers?

Re:Civil vs. Criminal

[Bios_Hakr]

If you had actually *read* my post, you'd see that I pointed out that it was *not* an analogy.

>>Stealing your laptop is a criminal offense.

So is copyright infringement. The beginning of every movie tells you so.

>>Despite their propaganda, unlicensed copying of a RIAA member organization's content is a civil matter AND not theft.

I never said it was. My comment had nothing at all to do with the RIAA. It was a story about a guy who had his laptop stolen. He did an investigation and found the laptop. However, since he isn't licensed, the evidence he obtained cannot be used.