By Austin Modine in Mountain View for The Register. This
story has been reproduced with permission.
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.
© The
Register 2007
