[INFO] Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case

[D/\SH]

Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case



















By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 18, 9:08 pm ET
MINNEAPOLIS A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.
Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her.
Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.
"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.
In closing arguments earlier Thursday, attorneys for both sides disputed what the evidence showed.
An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley said the music companies failed to prove allegations that Thomas-Rasset gave away songs by Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Journey and others.
"Only Jammie Thomas's computer was linked to illegal file-sharing on Kazaa," Sibley said. "They couldn't put a face behind the computer."
Sibley urged jurors not to ruin Thomas-Rasset's life with a debt she could never pay. Under federal law, the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 per song.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who heard the first lawsuit in 2007, ordered up a new trial after deciding he had erred in instructions to the jurors. The first time, he said the companies didn't have to prove anyone downloaded the copyrighted songs she allegedly made available. Davis later concluded the law requires that actual distribution be shown.
His jury instructions this time framed the issues somewhat differently. He didn't explicitly define distribution but said the acts of downloading copyrighted sound recordings or distributing them to other users on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, without a license from the owners, are copyright violations.
This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead now working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
In testimony this week, Thomas-Rasset denied she shared any songs. On Wednesday, the self-described "huge music fan" raised the possibility for the first time in the long-running case that her children or ex-husband might have done it. The defense did not provide any evidence, though, that any of them had shared the files.
The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.
Reynolds argued Thursday that the evidence clearly pointed to Thomas-Rasset as the person who made the songs available on Kazaa under the screen name "tereastarr." It's the same nickname she acknowledged having used for years for her e-mail and several other computer accounts, including her MySpace page.
Reynolds said the copyright security company MediaSentry traced the files offered by "tereastarr" on Kazaa to Thomas-Rasset's Internet Protocol address — the online equivalent of a street address — and to her modem.
He said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That's an important point, given Davis' new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.
Sibley argued it would have made no sense for Thomas-Rasset to use the name "tereastarr" to do anything illegal, given that she had used it widely for several years.
He also portrayed the defendant as one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the recording industry, and he warned jurors that they could also find themselves accused on the basis of weak evidence if their computers are ever linked to illegal file-sharing.
"They are going to come at you like they came at 'tereastarr,'" he said.
Steve Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, estimated earlier this week that only a few hundred of the lawsuits remain unresolved and that fewer than 10 defendants were actively fighting them.
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.
The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.

[tlpalmer01]

that is absolutely insane, the jury definetly over reacted.......

[parna1973]

I just wonder how on the hell is shes going to pay all that money hopefully she has enough money to cover all that ..its crazy..

[medic88]

Holy Crap! WAYYYYYY to much money! You cant help but feel bad for her. that is a re-donkulus amount

[CYBER WEESJE]

Wow this insane there nuts i wonder what i have to pay if i get busted




grtz cyber weesje
moderator@Wckediden

[Moebius]

I'm thinking it's about time for the people to stand up and remind the RIAA who pays their salary. They could have embraced the digital technologies years ago instead of sitting on their high horse looking away. Now, they're scrambling trying to get back in on it by any means necessary, which usually equates to screwing the casual individuals in an attempt to scare everyone. If they had embraced the ideas of digital music sales years ago, half of these big sharing sites probably wouldn't exist.

They don't go after the actual pirates making copies and trying to profit from the illegal activities. Instead they target people who barely know what they're doing in the hopes of scaring people straight.

Personally, I think it's about time for the people to stand up and tell the RIAA if they don't stop with these bs lawsuits and instead go after the real pirates who actually DO cost the industry lots of money, that we stop buying anything. Let CD sales slip to next to nothing for a few months and see what they think then.

[D/\SH]

“ Originally Posted by tlpalmer01 ”

that is absolutely insane, the jury definetly over reacted.......

i feel so too since they earlier offered her a 3000 and 4000 dollar settlement and than the big amounts!!! still cant believe it went up that much since the last trial also....

“ Originally Posted by parna1973 ”

I just wonder how on the hell is shes going to pay all that
money hopefully she has enough money to cover all that ..its crazy..

at the end of the article she says they aint going see it so she aint gonna wrorry about it because she has to take care of her 4 kids first.

“ Originally Posted by CYBER WEESJE ”

Wow this insane there nuts i wonder what i have to pay if i get busted




grtz cyber weesje
moderator@Wckediden

hahahaha mme and you son would both be screwed and owe billions lmao

[Mike20PR]

“ Originally Posted by Moebius ”

I'm thinking it's about time for the people to stand up and remind the RIAA who pays their salary. They could have embraced the digital technologies years ago instead of sitting on their high horse looking away. Now, they're scrambling trying to get back in on it by any means necessary, which usually equates to screwing the casual individuals in an attempt to scare everyone. If they had embraced the ideas of digital music sales years ago, half of these big sharing sites probably wouldn't exist.

They don't go after the actual pirates making copies and trying to profit from the illegal activities. Instead they target people who barely know what they're doing in the hopes of scaring people straight.

Personally, I think it's about time for the people to stand up and tell the RIAA if they don't stop with these bs lawsuits and instead go after the real pirates who actually DO cost the industry lots of money, that we stop buying anything. Let CD sales slip to next to nothing for a few months and see what they think then.

i totally concur with this comment, the real guilty pple are the ones who steal, rip, and distribute not the ones who download

imagine you seeing a garage sale with a sign saying, everything here is free!!! (although everything is stolen) and everyone takes it, do the police arrest the consumers or the ones who steal the merchandise and distributes for everyone to have?

this is stupid and i feel sorry for that lady....

[mrpants20]

“ Originally Posted by parna1973 ”

I just wonder how on the hell is shes going to pay all that money hopefully she has enough money to cover all that ..its crazy..

She'll never pay it back. Thats the point. To make an example of her

[VenumX]

i wouldnt pay it it either, it's funny cause they always pick people that only download 1 - 30 songs...you never see someone with a 30 GB song copyright infringement :P

[whogivsafuq]

yeah this is crazy. how she gonna pay for that? shes a single parent with 4 kids. file for bankcraptcy. damn only 24 songs she has to pay that much. and why did the judge let that happen

[MikeyD]

although the 3k - 5k is easier to pay, i know i cant afford that but almost 2 mil thats stupid. I also feel sorry for the lady. How do they expect her to even attempt to pay that amount, i would pay $1 a month until i died just so they cant say i didnt try to pay it back....LOL. I mean we got real criminals out there raping little kids and killing people but our socity is so *ucked right now that they worry more about people "file sharing" and all other "criminals" are put on the back burner. They should just put "ALL" of us on the americas most wanted list and let the real bad people roam free.

Dash and Cyber if they caught us we could bring the econimy back to normal with money we'd owe......LMAO

[D/\SH]

“ Originally Posted by MikeyD ”

although the 3k - 5k is easier to pay, i know i cant afford that but almost 2 mil thats stupid. I also feel sorry for the lady. How do they expect her to even attempt to pay that amount, i would pay $1 a month until i died just so they cant say i didnt try to pay it back....LOL. I mean we got real criminals out there raping little kids and killing people but our socity is so *ucked right now that they worry more about people "file sharing" and all other "criminals" are put on the back burner. They should just put "ALL" of us on the americas most wanted list and let the real bad people roam free.

Dash and Cyber if they caught us we could bring the econimy back to normal with money we'd owe......LMAO

hahaha well that xmen leak on top of 3 terabytes of movies and music as well as other pirated software like windows stuff and adobe masters collections..... hell i would be in the trillions by myself hahahaa

[mrpants20]

“ Originally Posted by VenumX ”

i wouldnt pay it it either, it's funny cause they always pick people that only download 1 - 30 songs

“ Originally Posted by whogivsafuq ”

damn only 24 songs she has to pay that much. and why did the judge let that happen

They mentioned this in the artice,

“ Quote ”

The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa.... For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.

In reality I'm sure she downloaded and made way more available for download than that. But, still this is so ridiculous. I can understand this for someone like selling the stuff and making money or something like that, but just downloading and sharing?? C'mon thats absurd

[nadcicle]

I'm sure if everyone in this thread alone payed for everything they downloaded we alone would bring this country out of recession :P lol... ahh well

In the great words of Billy Bob Thorton, "We can't all be Winners now can we?" .... damn candy corn...

--------- New Post Merged on 22/6/2009 at 01:39:29 --------

“ Originally Posted by MikeyD ”

although the 3k - 5k is easier to pay, i know i cant afford that but almost 2 mil thats stupid. I also feel sorry for the lady. How do they expect her to even attempt to pay that amount, i would pay $1 a month until i died just so they cant say i didnt try to pay it back....LOL. I mean we got real criminals out there raping little kids and killing people but our socity is so *ucked right now that they worry more about people "file sharing" and all other "criminals" are put on the back burner. They should just put "ALL" of us on the americas most wanted list and let the real bad people roam free.

Dash and Cyber if they caught us we could bring the econimy back to normal with money we'd owe......LMAO

Ohh snap ain't that the truth... didn't read what you wrote til after i posted either lol..