New Trial Set in RIAA vs. Jammie Thomas Case

A federal judge has granted a new trial for Jammie Thomas who was convicted of copyright infringement last year as part of the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign against illegal file sharing. On Wednesday the Minnesota federal judge Michael Davis threw out the verdict against Thomas.

The issue the court is considering is whether or not the RIAA had to first prove that other people had downloaded from Thomas' files or if making them available for download was enough. Citing a case from 1993, Davis determined that there did have to be proof of distribution and that putting them out there on Kazaa was not enough, as he had originally told the jury.

Disproportionate Damages?

Davis also noted that the original fine levied on Thomas, $222,000 dollars, was "wholly disproportionate" to the actual damages the RIAA incurred. Thomas was convicted of sharing 24 songs, and Davis noted this was the equivalent of three CDs with a cost of about $54. But the award to the recording companies was 4000 times the actual cost of three CDs. While Davis did not void the fine because a new trial was being set, he did call on Congress to address the federal Copyright Act and its stipulations regarding damages and liabilities in these cases. Adding his own advice, Davis noted that damages set around 100 times the cost of the copyrighted material would be enough to deter illegal filesharing.

After the decision, Thomas, a mother of six, said: "Now they're going to have to prove their claims. They never had to prove anything before. Now they do. It kind of levels the playing field a little bit."

With recording companies quickly becoming a cautionary tale in how not to deal with the emerging digital economy, the RIAA will most likely pursue the case further. Speaking for the RIAA, Jonathan Lamy told the Associated Press, "Regardless of this narrow issue, a jury of her own peers unanimously found Ms. Thomas liable for copyright theft and for causing significant harm to the music community. We have confidence in our case and the facts assembled against the defendant."

Last year, the RIAA sued almost 26000 people for copyright infringement, but Thomas was the first person ever to go trial for illegal file sharing in the United States.

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