Capitol v. Thomas

"Capitol v. Thomas" (previously named "Virgin v. Thomas") was the first file-sharing copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Against America (RIAA) to be tried to a jury. Jammie Thomas was initially found liable for 24 acts of infringement and ordered to pay $222,000 in damages. The judgment was later vacated when the judge granted her motion for a new trial.

Background

Jammie Thomas (born 1977) is a single mother of two from Brainerd, Minnesota. Thomas was sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement, by illegal sharing of songs, in Duluth, Minnesota. She was represented by Minneapolis attorney Brian Toder.cite web| last =Freed| first =Joshua| title =Brainerd woman loses music download case| publisher =Minnesota Public Radio| date =2007-10-04| url =http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/10/04/downloadingday3/| accessdate = 2007-10-07]

On October 4, 2007, the final day of her trial, presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis, the jury returned a verdict against her in the amount of $222,000, which came to $9,250 per song file, deciding that Thomas willfully violated the copyright of 24 music files consisting of such bands as Aerosmith, Green Day, and Guns N' Roses on Kazaa, under the user name of tereastarr@KaZaA. cite journal
first =Lewis
last =Krauskopf
authorlink =
coauthors =Gavin Haycock
year = 2007
month = October 5
title =Music industry wins song-download case
journal =Reuters
volume =
issue =
pages =
id =
url =http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN0541841120071005 ] cite web
first =Joshua
last =Freed
year = 2007
month = October 5
title =Woman to pay downloading award herself
url =http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071006/ap_en_bu/downloading_music
archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20071013204358/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071006/ap_en_bu/downloading_music
archivedate=2007-10-13 ]

According to "Billboard", Jammie Thomas shared a total of 1,702 tracks online. The RIAA however focused on only 24 of these. In addition, the RIAA first warned Thomas with a cease-and-desist letter. Thomas refused and the RIAA then asked for a (comparatively small) settlement. Thomas again refused and the case went to court.

Thomas' legal defense was to claim that she had not shared the files. Juror Michael Hegg later commented, "She's a liar". [ [http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/riaa-juror-we-w.html RIAA Juror: 'We Wanted to Send a Message' | Threat Level from Wired.com ] ]

A hard drive containing the copyrighted songs was never presented at the trial. Thomas turned over a hard drive that contained neither Kazaa nor the infringing files to the RIAA attorneys. cite web| last =Kravets| first =David| title =Defense Planting Seeds of Doubt with RIAA Jurors| publisher =Wired News| date =2007-10-03| url =http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/defense-plantin.html| accessdate = 2007-10-13] There was no evidence showing that the Kazaa account had allowed others to effectively download the files, but jury instruction number 15 instructed the jurors that merely "making available" sufficed to constitute an infringement of the plaintiffs' distribution rights, even without proof of any actual distribution. [ [http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/files/jury_instructions.pdf Jury Instructions in Virgin v. Thomas] ] cite web| last =Bangamen| first =Eric| title =Debate over "making available" jury instruction as Capitol v. Thomas wraps up (updated)| publisher =Arstechnica| date =October 4 2007| url =http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-debate-over-making-available-jury-instruction-as-capitol-v-thomas-wraps-up.html| accessdate = 2007-10-13]

Retrial

The judge in Thomas' trial ordered a retrial because recent caselaw has cast doubt on the theory of "making available" as sufficient for infringement. The retrial will be held with different jury instructions. [ [http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/jammie-thomas-n.html Judge Says First-Ever RIAA Piracy Trial May Need a Do-Over | Threat Level from Wired.com ] ] [ [http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/not-for-publica.html Judge Declares Mistrial in RIAA-Jammie Thomas Trial | Threat Level from Wired.com] ]

ee also

* RIAA efforts against file-sharing

References

External links

* [http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/minnesota/mndce/0:2006cv01497/82850/ Court documents] at Justia