Jammie Thomas file sharing verdict overturned

Stephen Withers
Friday, 26 September 2008 06:19

Business IT - Networking

A US judge has ordered a retrial in the civil case that saw Minnesota woman Jammie Thomas slugged with a damages bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged copyright infringement via peer-to-peer filesharing.

Almost a year ago, a jury found in favour of record companies that had alleged Jammie Thomas had made 24 songs available for copying over the Internet via Kazaa, and awarded damages of $US222,000.

It was the first file sharing case to reach the US federal courts, as many accused people had chosen to settle for a relatively small amount.

At the time, lawyer Ray Beckerman, who is associated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, described the jury verdict as "one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law" and suggested the judge may set aside the verdict.

And that's what has happened. US District Judge Michael Davis has granted Thomas's request for a new trial, ruling that he had incorrectly instructed the jury.

The instruction in question (Jury Instruction 15) was that "The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer‐to‐peer network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."

Davis's new ruling is that "Liability for violation of the exclusive distribution right... requires actual dissemination. Jury Instruction No. 15 was erroneous and that error substantially prejudiced Thomas's rights."

There is some good news for the music industry in the verdict - see page two.