Intellectual Property Law

Jammie Thomas Lawyer: Get Me Off This Case!

By David Kravets

The lawyer for Jammie Thomas is seeking to withdraw from representing his client in the pending retrial of the nation’s only Recording Industry Association of America file sharing case to go to a jury.

Brian Toder told (.pdf) U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Minnesota that he has billed nearly $130,000 of his own money on the first trial “that will never be recovered, coupled with the likelihood that a similar, additional amount will be incurred if ordered to continue representation of defendant.”

Jammie Thomas testifying during her October, 2007 trial

A retrial is set for June 15. Judge Davis has not ruled on whether to release Toder from representation.  Both sides could not agree this week to settle the case without a retrial.

“There’s no way another lawyer could try this case by June 15,” Toder said in a telephone interview. The RIAA does not object to Toder’s removal, but opposes a continuance.

The motion to withdraw may indicate lack of confidence that Thomas will prevail in the new trial. Winners of civil suits are often entitled to attorneys fees.

A Duluth jury in 2007 dinged Thomas $222,000 for infringing 24 songs on the Kazaa file sharing program. But months later, Judge Davis declared a mistrial, saying he falsely instructed the jury that copyright infringement amounted to merely making available copyrighted works on a file sharing program -? regardless of whether it was proved anybody else downloaded the content.

Davis ruled it was unclear whether jurors found Thomas liable because she made the songs available or downloaded them from another open share folder. The RIAA, in arguing against a mistrial, said the distinction did not matter because it claimed it proved infringement both ways.

Toder successfully argued that the error was so egregious that a new trial was warranted.

The jury, in assessing the heavy damages award, found that Thomas turned over a different hard drive than the one the RIAA detected was used to infringe musical copyrights.

The RIAA has sued more than 30,000 individuals on accusations of copyright infringement. Most have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars.

See Also:

• Judge Declares Mistrial in RIAA-Jammie Thomas Trial
• No Settlement in RIAA v. Jammie Thomas
• Professors Siding With Jammie Thomas in RIAA Case
• RIAA Juror: ‘We Wanted to Send a Message’
• RIAA Appeals Jammie Thomas Mistrial

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).