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Posted Oct 4th 2007 6:21PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Portable Audio
The first RIAA file-sharing case to go to trial just wrapped, and sadly, the outcome isn't a positive one. Regardless of the incredibly asinine and consumer-hostile comments made by Sony BMG's head of litigation the other day, the jury found Jammie Thomas, a single mother from Minnesota, liable for willful copyright infringement and awarded the RIAA plaintiffs $222,000 -- that's $9,250 for each of the 24 songs she was alleged to have made available on Kazaa, for those of you keeping track at home, and probably something like, oh, say, $222,000 more than she should have had to pay, since the RIAA plaintiffs weren't required to show that Thomas had a file-sharing program installed on her machine or that she was even the person using the Kazaa account in question. Of course, this is just one case and there's always the possibility of appeal, but anything that emboldens the RIAA's litigation team is never good for the general public.

Disclaimer: Although this post was written by an attorney, it is not meant as legal advice or analysis and should not be taken as such.

If you read the court transcripts, you'll find that the jury members had hardly any computer experience whatsoever. If I'm not mistaken, more than one juror had never used a computer before and another refused to purchase one because she was afraid she'd be on it all the time. Sounds like a basis for appeal to me. And where the f*ck to they come up with such absurd rules to rule someone as being liable? The judicial system is seriously going to sh*t.