US woman handed $220,000 bill for sharing 24 songs

 

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Posted on 5 Oct 2007 at 08:30

A Minnesota court has found a woman guilty of "willful" copyright infringement by making 24 songs available on file sharing networks.

In the first case to reach trial, the jury awarded the plaintiffs $9,250 in damages per song, leaving the defendant, Jammie Thomas, with a $220,000 bill, plus legal fees that could rise to half a million dollars.

The case hinged on whether Thomas was the file sharer identified as "tereastarr" by the music industry's investigators. Richard Gabriel, attorney for the record labels that brought the case, submitted screenshots to demonstrate that Thomas had used the same online name on several occasions. He then said that tereastarr shared the same IP and MAC addresses as Thomas's own PC.

Thomas's attorney, Brian Toder said that relying on IP and MAC evidence is unreliable. "There are certainly alternative explanations, because my client didn't do it," he told the court, according to reports on Arstechnica.com. "Someone used her name and IP address - it's not impossible."

However his defence was complicated by the fact that Thomas had replaced her PC's hard drive shortly after receiving a letter from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) informing her of its intention to take legal action over her alleged file sharing.

Thomas maintains that she replaced the drive because it was faulty, not to remove any possible evidence of p2p activity.

Outside the court Toder said he believed the hard drive issue had swayed the jury. He said that Thomas was "devastated" but would not say whether she planned to appeal.

Gabriel said that it would be up to the RIAA to decide whether to pursue Thomas for payment of the damages. He suggested that victory is more important than the spoils.

"We appreciate the opportunity to put out in daylight the facts and evidence collected in this case," he said. "This does send a message, we hope, that both downloading and distributing music is no joke."

The verdict was condemned by New York lawyer Ray Beckerman, one half of Recording Industry vs The People. "A verdict of $222,000.00, for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76? In a case where there was zero evidence of the defendant having transferred any of those files? It is one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law," he said.

"If the Judge doesn't set aside the verdict sua sponte, I expect there to be motion practice to set aside the verdict, based on its obvious unconstitutionality and numerous other reasons, and if that fails I expect there to be a successful appeal."

Author: Simon Aughton