File sharer ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages
22 June 2009
Eileen McDermott, New York
A US jury has told file sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and six record companies nearly $2 million for making copyright-protected music available online
In October 2007, the RIAA won a closely-watched lawsuit against the then 32-year old Thomas. The case (Capitol Records v Thomas) was the first jury trial to consider the issue of music piracy, and was seen as an important victory for the RIAA’s anti-piracy campaign, which ran from 2003 to December 2008.
Thomas was accused of making songs available for download on the popular peer-to-peer file-sharing service, Kazaa.
The RIAA was able to trace Thomas’ Kazaa username to an email and internet protocol address, although she denied having a Kazaa account and claimed she may have been the victim of internet spoofing.
But a Minnesota federal jury did not accept her argument, awarding the record companies $222,000, or $9,250 for each of the 24 songs Thomas was charged...
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