In the first public fight against the Recording Industry Association of America since the group first started passing out lawsuits two years ago, eight students won a motion to quash on Feb. 27, as a judge ruled to drop the lawsuits.
And on Monday, Greensboro attorney Stephen Robertson filed a second motion to quash with four new students against the RIAA in hopes that the judge will drop their lawsuits.
The judge ruling with the students is a positive sign for future cases, according to Pam Gerace, director of Student Legal Services.
The reason the judge ruled against the RIAA, Gerace said, was because the RIAA had filed the lawsuits in bunches, not individually. The judge dropped all of the 34 lawsuits given out in August except for one, noting that lawsuit as one individual lawsuit.
But that lawsuit, labeled Doe No. 2, cannot be found by the ResNet. Typically, the University is able to locate each anonymous downloader by his or her IP addresses. In the case of Doe No. 2 though, the IP address could not be linked to a certain individual.
The RIAA now has 20 days to re-file the 33 lawsuits that were dropped.
"Our guess is that they won't do that, since they still have enough lawsuits outstanding," Gerace said.
A different judge is deciding on the motion to quash filed by the four students Monday. Other students, out of the 34 lawsuits that were dished out in February, tried to join the motion, but had asked the attorney too late, as the motion had already been filed, according to Gerace.
But all of the 34 benefited from the motion, Gerace said.
"It means there will be a stay," she said. "We were going to have to start sending the RIAA names on March 13, but now we don't have to."
Gerace said she thinks the decision on these lawsuits will come quicker, based on previous rulings.
"My guess is that it won't take as long for the judge to make a decision because of the earlier motion to quash," Gerace said.
