Copyright Law

Jammie Thomas asks Court for extension to retain expert witness, received $3000 grant from Free Software Foundation

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

In Capitol Records v. Thomas, which is scheduled for its second trial to take place on March 9th, the verdict from the first trial having been set aside, the defendant has received a grant of $3000 from the Expert Witness Defense Fund of the Free Software Foundation to enable her to retain an expert witness.

In the first trial, she could not afford an expert witness to rebut the expert witness used by the RIAA.

Accordingly, her attorney has made a motion for an extension of the discovery deadline.

This is the second case in which the FSF's Expert Witness Defense Fund has lent assistance, the first being UMG Recordings v. Lindor, where it granted $2046.92 to compensate the expert witness and $750.00 to compensate the technical consultant. A full report of the Expert Witness Defense Fund's receipts and disbursements as of December 31, 2008, is available here.

Memorandum in Support of Motion for Extension of Discovery Deadline

[Ed. Note. Tax deductible contributions can be made to the Free Software Foundation, specifically earmarked for the RIAA Expert Witness Defense Fund, which funds are used to help the victims of RIAA lawsuits to hire technical experts and/or consultants, here.]

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).