As predicted by the Lunatics, the wholesale suing of fans would eventually backfire and put the major labels under legal scrutiny.

At question Is the “Big Four’s” ( EMI, WMG, SonyBMG, and UMG) use of MediaSentry. These digital bounty hunters have already been discredited in Holland and Canada and now the U.S. courts are agreeing. First, US Magistrate Judge Donald C. Ashmanskas has awarded Tanya Andersen her attorney fees. By granting this, the judge determined the RIAA lacked “the prima facie evidence to support the claims of infringement.” And now Judge Ashmanskas has barred further motions to dismiss Tanya’s malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA.

The trade association (cartel) can’t run and hide from this suit, and Lory Lybeck – Tanya’s attorney – has extended it into a class action suit (meaning the RIAA will have to face the music from all the the people they have spied on, sued, settled with, or walked away from). The Lunatics know you can’t sue people with flimsy pretenses and get away with it.

“I’d love to know what kind of bounty MediaSentry got paid to supply erroneous identities to the RIAA,” Lybeck says. The Lunatics wonder if the RIAA’s legal war on downloading is more or less effective than our country’s war on drugs?