The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota single mother of two, for sharing songs on Kazza back in 2005. Trial was held this week in Duluth. In over 26,000 lawsuits brought by RIAA, this is the first to go to trial and is considered to be a landmark case in the war between the entertainment industry and file sharers.
At issue were about two dozen songs copyrighted by Virgin Records, Capitol Records, Sony BMG, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records and UMG Recordings.
Ms. Thomas said that she never heard of Kazaa. An ex-boyfriend also testified that Ms. Thomas was not involved in file-sharing. RIAA tracked down Thomas using her IP address and ISP records. Ms. Thomas's attorney suggested she might have been a victim of malware. Twelve jurors found Thomas liable for the copyright infringements and set the penalty at $9,250 per song, for a total of $222,000. She will also have to pay the studio's legal fees (probably another $250,000).
Before the entertainment industry began to file lawsuits, there were 6.9 million households using file-sharing programs. As of March 2007, that number has increased to 7.8 million. In the past 3 years, over a thousand "brick-and-mortar" record stores have closed, partly because their younger customers are downloading music. Despite facts to the contrary, the RIAA claims that their "sue everybody" campaign is working and will continue.
The world has gone crazy. Let's presume that she did it. A single-mom, living paycheck-to-paycheck, has to pay a half-million dollars, for sharing a couple-dozen files? The penalty does not fit the crime.
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