Thomas found guilty in federal retrial vs RIAA
updated 10:55 am EDT, Fri June 19, 2009
Thomas guilty in retrial
The long-standing legal battle between Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the Recording Industry Association of America closed another chapter, as the federal retrial found the defendant liable for willful copyright infringement, with the jury ordering her to pay a whopping $1.92 million in penalties. According to a Thursday Ars Technica report, the total damage award of $1.92 million was more than a $1.7 million increase from the amount awarded in the first trial. Thomas-Rasset was found to infringe on 24 copyrights held by the four major record labels, with each infringement costing the defendant $80,000.
The verdict and amount of damages came as a shock to both Thomas-Rasset and her lead lawyer, Kiwi Camara. Camara believed a guilty verdict would carry with it a minimum $750-per-song penalty. Thomas-Rasset said the RIAA is unlikely to collect the amount, however.
"Good luck trying to get it from me... it's like squeezing blood from a turnip," she said.
How strongly the RIAA and its lawyers will pursue the amount is also up in the air, as the campaign is already facing much criticism from the public for its practices.
A spokesperson for the industry association, Cara Duckworth, was at the trial and said RIAA is still willing to come to a settlement, though details on such an agreement were not forthcoming. Camara is aware of the settlement offer but said he is willing to file motions if his client wants to continue fighting. The defense can argue about the constitutionality on the amount of the damages and they have the option of filing an appeal. Thomas-Rasset herself has said the "war" between her and RIAA is not over, but did not clarify what that means exactly.
Camara intends to continue with his class-action lawsuit against RIAA that is based on the association allegedly violating federal anti-racketeering laws by pressuring the accused into settlements rather than face costly jury trials to defend themselves.












OUCH!
06/19, 01:19pm reply
That's gonna leave a mark.
Seems ludicrously excessive to me, but hey!
Flying Meat
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2007
Appeals
06/19, 01:55pm (1 reply) reply
It would be nice if there would be some judicial bottom to this pool of RIAA muck. After a bunch of appeals, perhaps this waste of time might actually turn something up: a definitive, logic look at how the DMCA can be realistically applied.
I only question where you can find judges who have enough tech knowledge to interpret the Act, or send it back to the legislature to be better defined and less a friend of the RIAA.
danviento
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2005
Seems like the lawyer
06/20, 01:43am reply
wants to keep fighting more than the client. PS: she was sharing over 1700 songs, the suit only needed to prove 24 of them.
And it was a jury of her peers...!
bigpoppa206
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2003