Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has asked a federal court to reconsider the more than $50,000 in attorneys' fees it awarded a woman the group's member record labels unsuccessfully sued for copyright infringement on file-sharing networks, Ars Technica reported.

U.S. District Court Judge Lee R. West ruled that Debbie Foster was not liable for the infringements committed on her Internet account by her children, and ordered the RIAA to pay her back what she had spent on attorneys to defend herself.

In its motion, the RIAA says the fees awarded were greater than the damages Foster would have paid had she lost the case, and further that Foster could have chosen to settle the case instead of going to court, and paid nothing.

The RIAA also takes issue with Judge West's dismissal of Foster's liability, arguing that if she had a "reason to know" infringement was occurring on her account, she should be held liable.

Wired News reported that, should the RIAA be successful in its "secondary infringement" argument, owners of the Internet accounts freely accessible over Wi-Fi connections could end up being held liable for copyright infringements committed by Internet cafe patrons, neighbors and others.

Related Links:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070222-8902.html

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/02/riaa_contests_d.html

http://www.riaa.com