Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?

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What Pirates Want: The most popular content on the Web networks for sharing copyrighted material Week ending Apr. 18; Data: BigChampagne

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JURY AVOIDANCE?

Lawyers around the country who defend people accused of music piracy often share information, and the evidence Andersen uncovers could have a broad impact on the legal sparring. Already, the Oregon Attorney General cited the arguments in Andersen's case when he asked a court to quash a request by the music industry for the names of 17 students at the University of Oregon who allegedly shared music online. "The RIAA is fighting very hard to make sure that [Andersen's case] never reaches a jury," says Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown University's law school. "The minute this reaches a jury, they will have to think about settling." Gabriel says the RIAA will pursue the case as vigorously as necessary.

The woman at the center of the dispute grew up in Woodburn, Ore., outside Portland. Her father died of leukemia when she was six, leaving her mother to raise Tanya and her younger sister, Tye. Her mother, Sonja Patzer, worked double shifts as a clerk at the local grocery store, giving up time with the girls for the money to support them. Tanya started working in a nursing home cafeteria when she was 16 and moved away two years later to go to community college in nearby Salem. "The girls were raised that you need to take care of yourself in life," says Patzer, now 66.

When the RIAA first set its sights on her three years ago, Andersen was looking after her eight-year-old daughter by herself in the wake of a divorce. It was December, 2004, and she pulled an envelope out of her mailbox. Ripping it open, she found a letter from Verizon Communications (VZ), her Internet service provider, saying it was releasing information about her. With it was a copy of a page from a subpoena. Andersen had earned a two-year legal secretary degree while in community college, but she had no idea what the documents meant. "I thought to myself: "I haven't done anything wrong,'" she says.

A second, more ominous letter arrived in early February, 2005. The document, from a law firm in Los Angeles, said she was being sued by several record companies for copyright infringement because she had shared their music with others over the Net. "The evidence necessary for the record companies to prevail in this action has already been secured," the letter states. It informed her that the minimum damages for each copyrighted song shared was $750 and encouraged her to contact the Settlement Support Center to discuss a financial settlement. If she didn't resolve the issue, she would be sued.

For the first time, Andersen was scared. She tried to e-mail a contact listed in the letter and called the law firm. A few days later her phone rang. "Ms. Andersen, I am calling to discuss settlement," she recalls the person on the other end of the line saying. "Settlement of what?" she responded. The man explained he was calling from the Settlement Support Center as a representative of the RIAA. He had information that she had been caught sharing songs online. To avoid a lawsuit, she would have to pay $4,000 or $5,000, he said. "You're going to have to pay us, or this won't go away," she says he told her.

THE SECRET SHARER

Andersen didn't know it at the time, but she was part of a new RIAA piracy crackdown. The music industry had spent years shutting down startups that make technology for sharing music over the Internet, such as Napster (NAPS). But for every tech company shuttered, two more seemed to pop up. In the fall of 2003, in a public effort to take on piracy, the RIAA started suing individuals it suspected were giving away copyrighted music. "Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation," said RIAA President Cary Sherman at the time. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action. We simply cannot allow online piracy to continue destroying the livelihoods of artists, musicians, songwriters, retailers, and everyone in the music industry."

The Settlement Support Center was a less public part of the initiative. Its name may suggest a neutral organization set up to resolve disputes with evenhanded objectivity. In fact, it was financed by the record industry and operated like a cross between a call center and a debt collection firm. The SSC has since been dissolved. The RIAA's law firm, Holme Roberts & Owen, is representing the organization in court.