World's dumbest file-sharer mulls appeal

Not so Jammie

By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 10th October 2007 14:47 GMT

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Ironically-named P2P user Jammie Thomas, who was fined $220,000 for copyright infringement in a case brought by the RIAA last week, wants to appeal the Minnesota jury's verdict.

The lady is certainly unlucky. But is she ill-advised by her attorney Brian Toder - or is she just incredibly stupid? You decide:

Jammie Thomas had used one hard drive for her Kazaa file sharing... then sent a different one to the plaintiffs. Amazingly, they noticed.
Doh!
Thomas's attorney claimed that her account might have been hijacked by a Wi-Fi hacker hovering outside her window. The plaintiffs had little trouble disproving this: she wasn't using Wi-Fi.
Doh!
Jammie Thomas carefully covered her tracks - by using the same login name for Kazaa that she uses for all her email, online shopping, and MySpace account.
Doh!

The blue-collar jury in Duluth wasn't impressed by the dissembling, and a juror told WiReD that the fine they imposed reflected her dishonest defence.

"Her defense sucked... I don't know what the f*ck she was thinking, to tell you the truth," said 38-year-old steel worker Michael Hegg.

"She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars. Spoofing? We're thinking, 'Oh my God, you got to be kidding'."

As if Thomas hasn't had enough bad legal advice already - now the preppie lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) want to "help out".

The EFF reckons that making files available isn't "making available" if er... no one downloads them. And they reckon that the copyright act only applies to physical objects. That's genius! 1983 sure is shaping up to be an interesting year...

An appeal fund has been set up for Ms Thomas, but perhaps a nomination for the Darwin Awards might be more appropriate?

The RIAA wants to put the fear of prosecution into internet users - but millions of P2Pers are cheerfully carrying on downloading today, knowing that their chances of being caught for copyright infringement are negligible.

What a pity that a few retarded bloggers want to connive with the RIAA in this ridiculous pantomime.

The two sides really do deserve each other. ®

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