Testimony Wraps In RIAA Trial

Eskimo Joe writes "A federal judge surprised observers in the Captiol v Thomas file-sharing trial yesterday by barring RIAA president Cary Sherman from testifying. 'After a brief recess this afternoon, plaintiffs' counsel Richard Gabriel and defendant's counsel David Toder made their cases before the judge as to the relevance of Sherman's testimony. Toder argued that Sherman's testimony was not relevant to the question at hand, the fact of whether Thomas was liable for copyright infringement. Gabriel said that Sherman would be able to tell the jury why this case was significant, and more importantly, describe the harm the RIAA believes piracy has caused to the music industry. "I don't want to turn this case into a soap box for the recording industry," Toder argued in response.' Testimony wrapped up today [Wednesday] with closing arguments expected Thursday morning." Ars has up a summary, filed a few hours earlier, of other testimony in the trial. The jury could come back with a verdict later today.

Comments

Re:Don't get your hopes up

[anagama]

Win or lose it is publicity for the RIAA, particularly the reports that Thomas has paid $60k in attorney fees so far. Even if she wins, people will hear how much it cost her to win. But, if the reports are to be believed, she ain't winning this one -- she put on no experts (couldn't afford them) nor did she offer anyr testimony to substantiate alternative reasons for how the files got shared if it wasn't her.

I expect the jury to come back with a damage award of some kind -- probably not $750 per song because the math is hard. It'll use $1000 or some multiple where the two leftmost digits are divisible by 5 because the math is easy: 24 * (x*10 or 0) + (1/2 * 24 * 10).

There's my prediction, mod me troll if wrong.

Re:Uncertain either way

[neoform]

Have a fun life, I didn't bother reading your post (nor will anyone else).

You think talking to people like they're idiots is going to get you an audience, you're very mistaken. Don't forget to take out the trash, your grandmother doesn't like it when you let it pile up like that.