James Delahunty
8 Oct 2007 19:02
Jammie Thomas, the first person to be found guilty of copyright infringement by a jury for allegedly sharing music using P2P software, is to appeal the decision. The woman was left with a bill of $220,000 following the guilty verdict, which was considered appropriate damages for "making" 24 songs "available" for download, and not actually proving that copyright infringement took place.
Not only did the jury not find her guilty of uploading any songs, it also didn't find her guilty of downloading the 24 songs (of the 1702 in total she was accused of sharing) beforehand; the verdict was delivered because the files were "made available". Thomas announced that she has decided to appeal the decision on CNN.
Her attorney, Brian Toder, will appeal based on the jury's finding that making files available online violates copyright. "This would stop the RIAA dead in their tracks," Thomas wrote on her blog. "Every single suit they have brought has been based on this making-available theory, and if we can win this appeal, they would actually have to prove a file was shared."
Source:
News.com