RIAA suit against a mom dropped

This was not widely reported but was the most eye-opening item in a group of recent file-sharing stories. A US federal court in Oklahoma City dismissed a recording industry lawsuit against the parent of a file-sharer "with prejudice," the "Recording Industry vs The People" blog reports. "Faced with the mother's motion for leave to file a summary judgment motion dismissing the case against her, and awarding her attorneys fees, the RIAA made its own motion for permission to withdraw its case" (the blog links to the lawsuit itself). Cases like this are usually settled out of court, with the parent paying the RIAA a fine. Meanwhile, "a Dutch appeals court has thwarted attempts by the Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN to get the identities of file-sharers from five ISPs," The Register reports. "The court found that the manner in which IP addresses [of file-sharers] were collected and processed by US company MediaSentry had no lawful basis under European privacy laws." And file-sharing groups in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are forming a pro-piracy alliance and lobby, according to The Register in a separate report.