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A federal judge dealt the Recording Industry Association of America and record labels a setback Wednesday by throwing out a $222,000 verdict against a mom who was convicted of illegally sharing music over the Internet.

U.S. District of Minnesota Chief Judge Michael Davis ordered a new trial for Jammie Thomas, saying the jury's punishment was "unprecedented and oppressive." Davis said that the term "distribution" does not apply to simply making music available. It requires actual dissemination, he said.

Thomas claimed that she did not share music files and her lawyer argued that she may have been spoofed. A jury convicted her of putting 24 songs on Kazaa's file-sharing network and ordered her to pay $9,250 per song.

This week, her lawyers convinced Davis that the attorney representing the music label, Capitol, erred when he told the jury that making the songs available for others could be considered illegal distribution, even if there was no proof anyone downloaded the songs.

In a 44-page statement, Davis urged the U.S. Congress to improve copyright laws to prevent "oppressive" penalties in similar cases.

"The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer-to-peer network cases such as the one currently before this Court," Davis wrote. "While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs' claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs. Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs -- the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000 -- more than five hundred times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than four thousand times the cost of three CDs."

Davis said he did not excuse Thomas' behavior, but the penalty was excessive.

The RIAA said it would try the case again. Thomas also vowed to continue fighting the charges.

Yikes ! That seems a bit unfair. I'm all for making people pay for doing something illegal, but the punishment should fit the crime.

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Is this suggesting that the fine should be more in the order of $54? IMO, it should not be what the cost of the music is to the person who makes the music available to download, but should reflect the loss or potential loss to the copyright holder.

What if 20,000 people downloaded the music instead of buying the CD's? That would amount to far more than $222,000 in losses, making the above argument rather mute.

So based on your thinking if 200,000 people downloaded the songs in question the approptriate fine should be $100,800,000.00 per violation?! ROLMAO, Good one.

While it appears she (or family member) did in fact download the music, and it was in a share folder, she did not run the peer to peer software so it could be shared..

The suit is bogus, the fine way too high..

If you followed the Bull and Bear lawsuit with ASCAP a few years ago the judge only awarded them actual monies lost which was less than $1000. I have contacted every rep I have about ASCAP and RIIA. It is BS and their lobbying in DC is diminishing. You can bet your sweet (@$%&#!) they are asking for part of the bailout money..

Every professional I have talked to in the last few years including AMOA operators and broadcast engineers consider them mafia and why anybody here would want to justify their tactics is totally beyond me.

And there are most here that argue we do not need a national karaoke association.. wake up!!!

You might want to click on the link Endorced Policies.

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It would not surprise me if the Mafia did control the RIAA.. They have a finger in a lot of pies..

Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection -- only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans
Posted by Cory Doctorow, September 26, 2008 8:34 PM | permalink
Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they're repaying your honesty by taking away your music. Unless you go through a bunch of hoops (that you may never find out about, if you've changed email addresses or if you're not a very technical person), your music will no longer be playable after October 9th.

But don't worry, this will never ever happen to all those other DRM companies -- unlike little fly-by-night mom-and-pop operations like Wal*Mart, the DRM companies are rock-ribbed veterans of commerce and industry, sure to be here for a thousand years. So go on buying your Audible books, your iTunes DRM songs, your Zune media, your EA games... None of these companies will ever disappear, nor will the third-party DRM suppliers they use. They are as solid and permanent as Commodore, Atari, the Soviet Union, the American credit system and the Roman Empire.

Boy, the entertainment industry sure makes a good case for ripping them off, huh? Buy your media and risk having it confiscated by a DRM-server shutdown. Take it for free and keep it forever.

From: Walmart Music Team
Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Subject: Important Information About Your Walmart.com Digital Music Purchases
To: xxxxxx@gmail.com

Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart's MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.

Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.

Walmart Music Team

Obviously one not in possession of a math degree! PMWROTFLU