James Delahunty
5 Oct 2007 17:23
Jammie Thomas, the first person to be found guilty of willful copyright infringement by a jury as a result of an RIAA P2P lawsuit, said that she will not seek any financial help to pay the $220,000 judgment. "I'm not going to ask for financial help," she told The Associated Press on Friday. "If it comes, I'm not going to turn it down, either." Over 26,000 people have been sued by the RIAA for sharing music online.
Thomas' case was the first to make it to trial. She was accused of sharing 1,702 songs using the Kazaa P2P client, but only 24 of those songs were subject at the trial. The jury found that Thomas willfully violated the copyright of all the tracks, and awarded damages of $9,250 per song to the record companies.
This verdict has given the RIAA stronger legal precedence to use in future cases. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis had wanted to instruct the jury that the record companies would have to prove that actual copying took place in order to show copyright infringement. However, record company attorney Richard Gabriel argued that in other cases, simply making files available was found to be infringement, forcing the Judge to change his mind.
"Record labels don't like that because it's harder to prove," said Andrew Bridges, an attorney who has argued for the Computer & Communications Industry Association that copyright holders should have to prove the offered material is actually used. "It's all about whether they get a free pass to impose onerous damages on people without actually having to prove a case."
Source:
Yahoo (AP)