One of the few people to fight back in the music industry's legal battle against accused file sharers has succeeded, as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was ordered this week to pay a defendant nearly $70,000 in legal fees.

Repping the major music labels.

Oklahoma resident Debbie Foster, who was sued by the RIAA in 2004 for copyright infringement, was later determined not to be the member of her household who was using file-sharing services. Instead, the RIAA successfully sued Foster's adult-daughter Amanda.

But the elder Foster decided to fight back, seeking to have her legal fees paid back by the RIAA. In April, Judge Lee R. West had ordered the RIAA to pay back her fees, and this week he set the amount at $68,685.23.

The sum was less than Foster had sought, but the RIAA had claimed that the number of billable hours and the hourly rate Foster cited were too high. West based his ruling on a "reasonable hourly rate for defendant's counsel" of $175.

In a statement, the RIAA disputed the ruling.

"Our interest in these cases is enforcing the rights of the record companies and artists, while fostering an online environment where the legal marketplace can flourish and the music industry can invest in the new bands of tomorrow," the group said. "In the handful of cases where the person engaging in the illegal activity in the household is not the person responsible for the ISP (Internet service provider) account, we look to gather the facts quickly and do our best to identify the appropriate defendant."

But the RIAA was successful in one regard. Foster had also sought to force the group to disclose how much it pays its own attorneys to go after music uploaders. Foster was unable to convince the court to force the RIAA to do so.