RIAA hits paydirt: wins first music-sharing jury trial
Jammie Thomas fined $220,000 for 24 songs
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
The Recording Industry of America today won its first jury trial against an individual accused of illegally downloading music.
A federal jury fined Jammie Thomas, 30, of Minnesota $220,000 in damages to the six record labels suing her for copyright violation. Thomas will pay $9,250 for each of the 24 songs the prosecution focused on for the case. The RIAA alleges she shared over 1,702 songs in all over the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. Read more about the case here.
Thomas denied any wrongdoing over the course of the three day trial. Her attorney, Brian Toder, argued that although the prosecution had fingered her screen name and IP address, they had little proof it was Thomas behind the keyboard — or that music was actually shared with anyone over the account. Toder suggested Thomas may have been victim to a spoofer, cracker or other malicious intrusion of her home network.
US District Judge Michael Davis ruled the labels did not have to prove the songs were transfered for Thomas to be held liable. The act of making the songs available is enough to constitute copyright infringement, he said.
Davis instructed the 12-member jury the range of the fine was $750 to $150,000 per song.
Attorney for the record companies, Richard Gabriel, spoke with reporters outside of the courthouse after the verdict. He said the RIAA will continue to aggressively pursue those it suspects of copyright violations.
"This is what can happen if you don't settle," Gabriel said. ®
COMMENTS
@Andrew Orlowski
First of all I think it's very cowardly of you to disable comments on those "pirates be damned" articles/blog updates/ramblings of a fool. But in a sense, you are admitting that you know that your opinion is unpopular; and since this is a question of policy and politics; you are, therefore, wrong.
On a lighter note I'm happy to live in Europe, whose laws are there to protect the common denominator between people - our basic rights and freedoms, istead of bending over to the corporate greed. So screw america, and their RIAA. Long live piratebay. =)
Health and Safety
Or maybe it's me Andrew, fetching your flame-retardant suit for you following your inflammatory RIAA article, or a straight-jacket for your 'dismembering a child' comment ;p
tsss Car 4 P-O-B over
closed-to-comments rant
seconded
And why-oh-why is the El Reg triumphs in media battle of the wits item closed-for-comments too? What are you all afraid of today? ;p
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