On August 10 2006 EFF along with the American Association of Law Libraries the ACLU and Public Citizen filed an amicus brief with an Oklahoma district court urging the judge to award attorney's fees to an innocent defendant who successfully fought the recording industry when it sued her for the file-sharing activities of her daughter. The record labels sued Deborah Foster in November of 2004 accusing her of illegally downloading copyrighted material. Foster denied the allegations and fought back in court and the case was dismissed. She subsequently sought to require the plaintiffs to reimburse her for her attorneys' fees.

This case is just one of the tens of thousands being brought by recording industry against individual file-sharers coordinated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In many of these cases individuals settle even if they believe they are innocent because hiring a lawyer to defend often outstrips the settlement amount. Consequently it is critical that when an innocent defendant prevails she is able to recover attorneys' fees.

Fortunately in July 2007 the court ordered the recording industry to pay Ms. Foster's attorneys' and expert fees in the amount of $68 685.

The amicus brief was filed in the western district of Oklahoma with the assistance of attorney A. Laurie Koller of Carr & Carr.