U.S. district judges in Oklahoma City have ruled contrastingly on...

West (WID July 18 p5). But West’s colleague Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange last week denied fees to another ex-defendant, in Warner v. Stubbs. Both defendants said they were “prevailing parties,” entitled to fees. But Miles-LaGrange said the fact that the RIAA dropped its case against Tallie Stubbs when only “minimal discovery had been undertaken,” and the trade group’s “covenant” not to sue again (WID July 5 p8), kept Stubbs from being deemed the prevailing party under the Copyright Act. Nor does she qualify for fees under the DMCA, since her claims didn’t allege “misrepresentation” by the RIAA of her online behavior, Miles-LaGrange said. RIAA withdrawal of its suit against Stubbs, soon after her attorney Marilyn Barringer-Thomson filed an accusation against the group of “extortion,” got widespread attention (WID Aug 28/06 p1). Barringer-Thomson also represented Debbie Foster, who won fees after the RIAA accused her of secondary liability after it identified Foster’s daughter as its primary target. In another case, a White Plains, N.Y., federal magistrate judge has cited the Supreme Court Twombly ruling on specificity in pleading to deny P2P defendants’ motion to add counterclaims. Twombly has seen increasing use by both sides in recent P2P cases, though judges have split on whether it goes against “boilerplate” RIAA complaints or defendants’ counterclaims (WID March 3 p2). Elektra v. Santangelo II is a case against the children of the first P2P defendant known to have pushed for a trial against the RIAA. Robert and Michelle Santangelo sought to assert counterclaims against the RIAA, including “breach of duty to warn,” false advertising and deceptive trade practices under New York and federal law, copyright misuse, computer fraud, trespass and civil conspiracy. Most of those counterclaims have no legal basis under Twombly, Magistrate Judge Mark Fox told Judge Stephen Robinson. He ruled that New York law on private-investigator licensing doesn’t offer a private right of action -- only the secretary of state can move against unlicensed investigators. Several P2P defendants have accused RIAA investigator MediaSentry of lacking the license needed for its searches of their shared folders to show infringement. Police have questioned MediaSentry on its P2P investigations in Massachusetts (WID Feb 21 p3).