Lory Lybeck, attorney for former RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen, has filed an amended complaint in her malicious prosecution lawsuit against the record labels and the RIAA. It's Lybeck's fourth attempt at crafting a complaint acceptable to the judge, and, if it is successful, it will set the stage for what Andersen hopes will be far-ranging discovery into the RIAA's tactics throughout its long-running legal campaign against P2P users.

Andersen's first three complaints have all been dismissed by the judge presiding over the case, but Judge Anna J. Brown has given Andersen leave to refile each time. The initial complaint, which accused the RIAA of racketeering, fraud, invasion of privacy, deceptive business practices, and a host of other misdeeds, was dismissed by Judge Brown in February. In her decision, she indicated that Andersen failed to adequately state claims for relief, but gave her leave to refile an amended complaint.

That second amended complaint was refiled in mid-March, with Lybeck telling Ars that it would focus on the RIAA's "sham litigation" and its "abuse of the federal judiciary to operate [its] criminal enterprise." The RIAA was critical of the 108-page filing, arguing that it was "long on rhetoric, hyperbole, and scandalous allegations." The group also said that Lybeck ignored the judge's instructions to file a "plain and concise" complaint.

Judge Brown apparently agreed with the RIAA's take, dismissing the second complaint as well, and a third complaint filed in early April was dismissed on April 21. In her most recent ruling, the judge indicated her belief that the racketeering claims would be difficult to successfully litigate; accordingly, the fourth complaint has dropped references to state and federal RICO violations. Lybeck has said that he may seek the judge's permission to refile those claims, presumably depending on how discovery goes.





Tanya Andersen

The latest complaint is still intended to be a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of others who have been mistakenly targeted by the RIAA's "campaign of threat and intimidation." The RIAA stands accused of conspiracy and abuse of the legal process, negligence, acting criminally "in 'investigating' and pursuing claims against class members," wire fraud, mail fraud, and wrongfully filing lawsuits.

Laying the background for the allegations in the lawsuit, Andersen cites the famous "driftnet" comment uttered by a former RIAA spokesperson as well as a statement made during a deposition by MediaSentry's former president that its "investigative scheme" suffered from "serious flaws." But the central piece of Andersen's complaint is the RIAA's conduct in Atlantic v. Andersen. She says that the RIAA could have with very little effort discovered the true identity of "gotenkito@KaZaA," the P2P user observed by MediaSentry, but instead chose to pursue its case against her—despite having "actually already identified the real 'gotenkito'" over 10 months before dismissing the case against her.

As this is the fourth complaint filed in Andersen v. Atlantic, the judge may not be inclined to give her attorney a fifth shot. Lybeck's latest effort weighs in at a relatively svelte 39 pages, a little more than one-third the length of the second complaint. Lybeck has accused the RIAA of "operating a zone of secrecy" throughout its legal campaign, and hopes that last week's filing will mark the beginning of the end for the labels and their legal campaign.

The RIAA's response to the lawsuit is due by May 20.