RIAA Decries Attorney-Blogger as 'Vexatious' Litigator

By David Kravets September 17, 2008 | 5:47:01 PM

The Recording Industry Association of America is declaring attorney-blogger Ray Beckerman a "vexatious" litigator. The association is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions to punish him in his defense of a New York woman accused of making copyrighted music available on the Kazaa file sharing system.

The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation's few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, "has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs," the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. "Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions."

Lory Lybeck, a Washington state defense attorney leading a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing the RIAA of allegedly engaging in "sham" litigation tactics, said the RIAA's motion comes from the same organization that has sued about 30,000 people over the last five years for file sharing, some of them falsely. It's the same organization, he said, that has sued dead people, the elderly and even children -- all while using unlicensed investigators.

"This is like irony and irony and irony," Lybeck said in a telephone interview. "That's what vexatious litigation is."

Beckerman, whose blog is Recording Industry vs The People, said in an interview the allegations were "frivolous and irresponsible."

Attorney Ray Beckerman denies RIAA charges that he's a "vexatious" litigator.

Lybeck represented an Oregon woman, Tanya Andersen, and got the case dismissed last year. The RIAA fought paying his legal fees because it claimed she was still an infringer. He countersued. The case seeks to represent what he says are "thousands of people falsely sued" by the RIAA. The case is pending.

"Irony is too tame of a word to describe the motion against Ray," Lybeck said. "Their whole 30,000-lawsuit scheme is founded on the purpose to run a PR campaign based on a fundamental starting place of an illegal investigation by unlicensed investigators and then a threatening letter," Lybeck said. "Ray is duty bound and ethically bound to zealously defend his client."