Settlements during the course of a litigation are not dissimilar to those prior to litigation. The RIAA seeks a larger amount, typically $4500 plus $375 court costs, nonnegotiable, and submits a form of settlement which is likewise nonnegotiable. It is difficult to obtain information on this process since most settlement discussions are confidential.
The judgment in Motown v. Lisberg, a California case, is an example of the RIAA's non-negotiable "settlement".
In Capitol v. Foster, due to a waiver of confidentiality, there is some insight available into the process. There the RIAA was willing to make a payment of attorneys fees to Ms. Foster, but in an amount that was far less than she had incurred. The parties never reached agreement on the amount, and the matter of attorneys fees is being considered by the judge. One might speculate that there may have been settlements in which the RIAA withdrew its case and paid the defendant attorneys fees, but the RIAA would no doubt have insisted upon confidentiality of such a settlement, and so we would never know about it.

We are aware of the RIAA's claim that it accepts reduced amounts in "hardship" cases, however we have not confirmed the existence of any instance of them ever having accepted a reduced amount.

Cases which are in litigation are under the aegis of a Magistrate Judge or District Court Judge, so it is always possible that the Court will become involved in the settlement process. In Maverick v. Goldshteyn, the Magistrate Judge, at the request of Ms. Goldshteyn, scheduled a settlement conference, at which the principals were required to attend, in person, and with settlement authority. However, at the actual conference, a single attorney from the RIAA was accepted by the judge as an appropriate "principal" of all of the plaintiffs. A stipulation and order of settlement has been entered, and is available online.


*Reprinted with permission of Ray Beckerman from http://info.riaalawsuits.us/howriaa.html updated March 31, 2007.