09/25/2008
Later for the economy; Jammie Thomas won a retrial
Jammie Thomas, the first person to ever take on the RIAA's goons in a federal court, is carrying the torch for all of us.
From the AP/Washington Post:
MINNEAPOLIS -- A federal judge granted a new trial to a Minnesota woman convicted of pirating music files in the nation's first file-sharing trial, ruling Wednesday he made an error in the jury instructions that "substantially prejudiced" her rights.
Jammie Thomas was convicted last October and a jury in Duluth found her guilty of copyright infringement for offering to share 24 songs on the Kazaa file sharing network. She was ordered to pay $222,000 to six record companies.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael J. Davis granted her motion for a new trial, while also imploring Congress to change copyright laws to prevent excessive awards in similar cases.
At issue was whether the record companies had to prove anyone else actually downloaded their copyrighted songs, as Thomas' lawyer argued, or whether it was enough to argue, as the industry did, that a defendant simply made copyrighted music available for copying
And a bit more detail from ZDNet:
In a 44-page statement, [Judge] Davis urged the U.S. Congress to improve copyright laws to prevent "oppressive" penalties in similar cases.
"The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer-to-peer network cases such as the one currently before this Court," Davis wrote.
"While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs' claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs. Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs -- the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000 -- more than five hundred times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than four thousand times the cost of three CDs."
Davis said he did not excuse Thomas' behavior, but the penalty was excessive.
The RIAA said it would try the case again. Thomas also vowed to continue fighting the charges.