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Record Companies Win Music Sharing Trial
"We don't know what happened," Toder told jurors. "All we know is that Jammie Thomas didn't do this."
Copyright law sets a damage range of $750 to $30,000 per infringement, or up to $150,000 if the violation was "willful." Jurors ruled that Thomas' infringement was willful but awarded damages in a middle range; Gabriel said they did not explain the amount to attorneys afterward. Jurors left the courthouse without commenting.
  Jammie Thomas of Brainerd, Minn., left, leaves the federal courthouse building in Duluth, Minn. on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 with her attorney, Brian Toder, during a midday break after closing arguments. Thomas is on the third day of her civil trial for alleged music pirating through illegal sharing of song files. Some 26,000 lawsuits have been filed over alleged misuse, but the case against Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two, is the first to go to trial. (AP Photo/Julia Cheng) (Julia Cheng - AP) TOOLBOXCOMMENT |
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CLOSEBefore the verdict, an official with an industry trade group said he was surprised it had taken so long for one of the industry's lawsuits against individual downloaders to come to trial.
Illegal downloads have "become business as usual. Nobody really thinks about it," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, which coordinates the lawsuits. "This case has put it back in the news. Win or lose, people will understand that we are out there trying to protect our rights."
Thomas' testimony was complicated by the fact that she had replaced her computer's hard drive after the sharing was alleged to have taken place _ and later than she said in a deposition before trial.
The hard drive in question was not presented at trial by either party.
The record companies said Thomas was sent an instant message in February 2005 warning her that she was violating copyright law. Her hard drive was replaced the following month, not in 2004 as she said in the deposition.
"I don't think the jury believed my client regarding the events concerning the replacement of the hard drive," Toder said.
The record companies involved in the lawsuit are Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.
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