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In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury awarded the RIAA statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the special verdict form nor the jury instructions spelled out what the elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual — damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update: 06/19 01:39 GMT by T : Lots more detail at Ars Technica, too.
She should have settled at any point during this whole mess. In fact, the RIAA's spokesperson gave this comment right after the verdict was read today. "Since day one we have been willing to settle this case... and we remain willing to do so." That seems pretty reasonable.
The damages are enormous, but the legal fees that the RIAA has amassed need to be recouped in some fashion. Jammie was stupid to think that the damages would go down. I've been following the case, and she has been caught lying several times.
Everyone likes to dogpile on the RIAA, but they are only defending the rights that the law has provided them. They didn't suggest any fine; the jurors decided on it by themselves. You can argue till the cows come home about whether what she did should be a crime, but it's the law and given the facts in the case, the burden of proof in civil trials (it only has to be more likely that she did it than not), and the facts of the case; a verdict of liable was the only reasonable conclusion. I'm disappointed in her counsel; trying to make a statement on copyright law and the shenanigans was irresponsible. Kiwi did a horrible disservice to her.
Moral of the story: don't break the law, and if you do, try to avoid lawyers, they are very expensive. It was foolish to reject the initial $5000 settlement. Any lawyer could have looked at the facts of the case and come to the conclusion that she didn't have sufficient evidence to prove her innocence, which is very important in civil trials.
Jesus Fucking Christ!
What the hell is going on in this country?!
Please STOP putting stuff in CAPS. It's almost as ANNOYING as all CAPS and is usually used by wingnuts of various persuasions. Thanks