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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But errors can arise in a number of ways. One IP address may be assigned to a device such as a Wi-Fi router that can be used by several people at the same time to access the Net wirelessly. So if a visitor or a neighbor decides to steal music over the Wi-Fi network, the homeowner would still be fingered. In addition, some people have IP addresses that change every time they log onto the Net, so the IP address you use in the morning could be assigned to your neighbor that afternoon. Verizon and other Web service providers try to track who has which IP address at what time, but their records can be faulty.

More troublesome, sophisticated computer users can "spoof" IP addresses, or use one assigned to somebody else. They use a simple piece of software to forge the IP address on packets of information sent from their computer, much like someone who puts an address on the back of an envelope that isn't theirs. The people most likely to spoof are the very tech-savvy youngsters also mostly likely to be stealing music. Even if the RIAA had an IP address it believed belonged to Andersen, Lybeck thought, that wasn't necessarily the case.

In September, 2006, the RIAA asked Andersen a curious question: Did she know anyone named Chad? She didn't. But Lybeck tracked him down. Chad was Chad Alstad, a carpet layer who lived in Everett, Wash. He had a MySpace (NWS) page on which he wrote about downloading content from the Net. And his user name? Gotenkito, the same name Eilers had said was used in the alleged piracy. Lybeck was amazed: Alstad seemed a much more likely suspect than Andersen.

Over the next few months, Lybeck and the record industry tussled over Andersen's computer. The court ordered Andersen to hand over the computer, and the RIAA took it to an expert so it could be searched for signs of music piracy. But then the industry's lawyers refused to release the expert's report. Ultimately, Donald C. Ashmanskas, the U.S. District Court judge overseeing the case in Portland, ordered the RIAA to turn over the information, which it did in January, 2007. The result? No evidence of piracy.

Lybeck was convinced his defense was airtight. On May 14, he asked the Portland court for summary judgment. Ashmanskas gave the RIAA until June 1 to provide more evidence linking Andersen to the alleged infringement. In the week leading up to the deadline, the RIAA told Andersen it would drop its case if she agreed not to pursue counterclaims. She refused. Finally on the deadline, industry lawyers dropped the case without conditions and agreed not to sue Andersen again.

Lybeck still hadn't made a dime for his efforts. He asked Ashmanskas to make the RIAA pay his legal fees. In September, 2007, the judge agreed. In his ruling, Ashmanskas wrote that he was awarding the fees in part to deter prosecution tactics such as the RIAA's. After two years, "no one even remotely connected to the defendant has been alleged to be the actual infringer," he wrote. He was also shocked that the RIAA never interviewed Alstad until well after it had filed suit against Andersen, and then took Alstad at his word that he hadn't stolen music. "Inexplicably, [the RIAA's lawyers] credit his denials and discredit [Andersen's]," Ashmanskas wrote. He ordered the RIAA to pay Lybeck's fees, estimated at $300,000. "That made me feel that justice was being done," says Andersen.

Gabriel says it's not accurate to say the RIAA dropped its suit for lack of evidence. He says the user name Gotenkito may have been inspired by Kylee, since she admitted she liked Dragon Ball Z, a Japanese anime TV series that has a character with a similar name. He also says Andersen said in her deposition that she knew or listened to some of the country and rock artists whose songs were offered for download. "We took the high road," says Gabriel. "The judge inferred that we dropped the case because we didn't have enough evidence; we could have pursued the case until the end of time." Andersen says she and her daughter had nothing to do with the piracy.