Jammie Thomas Fined 1.92 Million for Sharing Two Dozen Songs
Jammie Thomas, a young mom who has become the Joan of Arc of file sharing, was found guilty of violating 24 song copyrights, and fined 1.92 million dollars, yep, about 80k per tune. Justice?
The jury found Thomas-Rasset’s conduct to be willful, which means that statutory damages under the Copyright Act can range from $750 per infringement up to $150,000. In his closing statement, defense lawyer Joe Sibley made clear that even the minimum award would run $18,000 (24 songs x $750 = $18,000), an amount that he said was unfair and crippling to Thomas-Rasset. The jury decided that the per-song penalty would be $80,000, for a total damage award of $1.92 million, over $1.7 million more than the award in her first trial.
Expect this to be appealed on grounds of unconscionability. It will also fuel the PR disaster which has been RIAA’s prosecution of file sharers. Lawyers in this year’s two highest-profile file-sharing cases plan to file a class-action lawsuit against the recording industry to claw back the “$100+ million” they claim that the RIAA has “stolen.”
RIAA prosecution has been copyright’s song that never ends.
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1 Response to "Jammie Thomas Fined 1.92 Million for Sharing Two Dozen Songs"
May 21, 2010
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