Intellectual Property Law

RIAA Fears Thomas Keeps On File Sharing, Despite $2 Million Verdict

By David Kravets

The Recording Industry Association of America ? fresh from winning a $1.92 million jury verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset for file sharing 24 songs ? is demanding that the judge in the case enjoin the Minnesota woman barring her from future file sharing.

If an $80,000-per-song verdict isn’t enough to deter Thomas-Rasset from file sharing, we’re not so sure an injunction matters. Still, the RIAA fears the 32-year-old Thomas-Rasset, who undoubtedly has become the world’s most notorious copyright scofflaw.

“As copyright holders, plaintiffs are entitled to avoid the irreparable damage that will occur if defendant continues to infringe upon plaintiffs’ copyrights,” RIAA attorney Timothy Reynolds wrote (.pdf) Monday to U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Minnesota.

Reynolds added that “absent an injunction, there is nothing to stop defendant from downloading and distributing more of plaintiffs’ sound recordings through an online-media-distribution system.”

The RIAA, the lobbying and litigation arm of the nation’s major record labels, reminded the judge that its investigators detected Thomas-Rasset distributing as many as 1,700 songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network, but only prosecuted her for two dozen songs.

“Furthermore, the nature of defendant’s means of infringement ? a peer-to-peer file sharing network with tens of millions of potential users ? has resulted in the distribution of plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings to innumerable other people, who, in turn, are likely to further distribute plaintiffs’ sound recordings,” Reynolds wrote. “The extent of the viral, or exponential, infringement set in motion by defendant is literally incalculable.”

During its 5-year-old litigation campaign, the RIAA has sued more than 30,000 file sharers. Most of them settled out of court for a few thousand dollars. Thomas was the only defendant to go to trial.

A Massachusetts man is set to go before a jury in three weeks in the second RIAA file sharing trial.

Also Monday, Thomas-Rasset challenged the June verdict as being unconstitutionally disproportionate to the financial losses incurred by the music industry.

See Also:

• Thomas Seeks New RIAA Trial; Says $1.92 Million Verdict ‘Monstrous …
• Jury in RIAA Trial Slaps $2 Million Fine on Jammie Thomas
• Jammie Thomas Lawyer: Get Me Off This Case!
• New Jammie Thomas Lawyers Vow to Put RIAA on Trial
• File Sharing Lawsuits at a Crossroads, After 5 Years of RIAA …

Full post as published by Threat Level on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).