RIAA Wins, the World Scowls, Pirates Shrug

Written by A. L. Friedman

Friday, October 5. 2007 at 03:15 PM EDT 4 comments

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A jury has found Jammie Thomas of Brainerd, Minn. liable for copyright infringement, and has billed her over $9,000 for each of the 24 songs which she allegedly shared on Kazaa. The sum total of the damages tops $200,000. Thomas had turned down a settlement offered by the RIAA, probably in the low thousands.

Thomas had opted to go ahead with the trial because she denied actually sharing the files, or having even heard of the file-sharing network on which her music was available. She had also recently replaced her hard drive, a fact that the RIAA asserted was an attempt to hide evidence. Testimony from a computer security expert from Iowa State University was used to debunk alternate explanations.

The verdict did not rely on any actual evidence that Thomas had actually shared files, nor that those files were downloaded by other users -- but on charges that she made the music available. A judge in Pennsylvania came to the same conclusion earlier this year.

This is, of course, a textbook Pyrrhic victory for the Recording Industry Association of America. Whatever small number of people will be scared into not sharing music anymore is easily trumped by that much more hatred which the public has for the easily vilified music biz. And given that Jammie Thomas is a single mother of two, there is no way in hell the RIAA is getting six figures out of the trial.