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Thomas Demands Retrial in RIAA $222,000 Verdict

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Jammie Thomas, the nation's first person to bring a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing lawsuit to trial, is urging(.pdf) the judge in her case to let a retrial go forward.

In September, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis overturned the jury's verdict that the Minnesota woman pay $222,000for infringing 24 songs on the Kazaa file sharing network. Last month, the RIAA asked the judge for permission to appeal the mistrial decision to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a motion Thomas is opposing in court documents.

The mistrial meant that, with 30,000 casesthe RIAA has filed against peer-to-peer users, none has reached a verdict. Most of the cases have settled out of court.

The reason for the mistrial centered at the heart of all file sharing cases: What level of proofis necessary to establish copyright infringement.

Judge Davis had instructed the Thomas jury last year that the recording industry did not have to prove anybody downloaded the songs from Thomas' open Kazaa share folder. Davis instructed jurors they could find unauthorized distribution ? copyright infringement ? if Thomas was "making copyrighted sound recordings available" over a peer-to-peer network "regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."

Davis reconsidered that jury instruction and declared a mistrial, ruling the jury instruction "was erroneous, and that error substantially prejudiced Thomas' rights."

The RIAA, which is the music industry's lobbying and litigation arm, told (.pdf) the judge that copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks is implied, and that it shouldn't have to provide proof of an actual transfer. (.pdf)

However, Judge Davis ruled that the 24 tracks the industry's investigators downloaded from Thomas' open Kazaa share folder can be used as evidence of infringement during a new trial, set for March 9.(.pdf)

The judge did not indicate when he would decide whether to grant the RIAA's mistrial appeal.

Check out Ray Beckerman's blogfor the court record in the case.

Image: Modernhumorist.com

Full post as published by Threat Level on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).