You often hear in the news that the RIAA is suing this person or that person for sharing music online. But have you read many news stories where the RIAA won any of these court cases?

The latest battle lost by the RIAA has been in the Atlantic Versus Anderson case. It has been dragging on for 3 years now. The court has ruled in favor of Anderson here, and now the RIAA has to pay Tanya Anderson, a disabled single mother, $107,834 for his legal expenses incurred in the courtroom wranglings.

The legal crux in the matter of the Atlantic Versus Anderson case was that the courts have ruled that making songs available on P2P networks does not constituent copyright violation.

Generally the RIAA sends out warnings to filesharers, saying that they will be sued unless they pay a fine for any suspicion of P2P music-sharing. Many people, fearing the sizable legal entities supporting the RIAA, will pay these fines. However, if someone refuses, and the battle goes to court, more often than not (at least so far) the court has ruled in favor of the defendants.

But how many people actually fight these cases? You'd probably be surprised at the numbers: the RIAA has pursued legal action towards about 40,000 people since 2003, and only about 5% of these people have fought back. Most opted to pay fines -- usually ranging between $3000 and $4000 -- while many others ignored the notices, hoping that they would go away, only to find out later that the court made default judgments against them. 

Unfortunately, most people do not have the assets available to challenge the RIAA's charges in the courtroom. Likewise, probably many people targeted by the RIAA do not realize that they would have a very good chance of winning these court cases, if they were brought to court.