The Happy Squirrel
05-15-2008, 08:01 PM
linkage (http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=66560§ion=homepage)
Brainerd woman hit with $222,000 music downloading verdict may get new trial
Duluth News Tribune and Associated Press
Published Thursday, May 15, 2008
A Minnesota woman ordered to pay $222,000 in the nation’s first music download trial may get another chance with a jury. But the lead attorney for the recording industry said the evidence against the woman remains “overwhelming.”
In October, a federal jury in Duluth decided that Jammie Thomas of Brainerd was liable for $222,000 in damages for will-fully committing copyright infringement, distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing network.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating a new trial because he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit prece-dent.”
Jammie Thomas [2007 file/Duluth News Tribune]
RELATED CONTENT
Oct. 5: Duluth Jury orders Brainerd woman to pay $222,000 for distributing music files
Oct. 5: Music pirating verdict doesn't faze Duluth college students
Davis told jurors that the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But in today’s order, Davis wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minne-sota, and states that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He gave the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“This technical legal issue doesn’t change the facts and the evidence in this case,” said Richard L. Gabriel, the Denver lawyer who led the case for the record companies’ case. “The evidence of actual copying and actual distribution was over-whelming. The jury found that Ms. Thomas willfully infringed the record companies’ copyrights.”
“We don’t believe that the court should disturb the unanimous verdict of the 12 jurors in this case,” he said. “Ultimately, if we have to retry this case, we are willing and prepared to do so without any hesitation.”
Thomas said her attorney, Brian Toder, was working on the case.
“Until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” she said this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights be-longed to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, Toder said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record companies have sued more than 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.
or $222,000 in damages for willfully committing copyright infringement by distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing neA Minnesota woman ordered to pay $222,000 in the nation’s first music download trial may get another chance with a jury. But the lead attorney for the recording industry said the evidence against the woman remains “overwhelming.”
In October, a federal jury in Duluth decided that Jammie Thomas of Brainerd was liable for $222,000 in damages for will-fully committing copyright infringement, distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing network.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating a new trial because he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit precedent.”
Davis told jurors that the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But in today’s order, Davis wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minne-sota, and states that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He gave the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“This technical legal issue doesn’t change the facts and the evidence in this case,” said Richard L. Gabriel, the Denver lawyer who led the case for the record companies’ case. “The evidence of actual copying and actual distribution was over-whelming. The jury found that Ms. Thomas willfully infringed the record companies’ copyrights.”
“We don’t believe that the court should disturb the unanimous verdict of the 12 jurors in this case,” he said. “Ultimately, if we have to retry this case, we are willing and prepared to do so without any hesitation.”
Thomas said her attorney, Brian Toder, was working on the case.
“Until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” she said this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights be-longed to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, Toder said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record companies have sued more than 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.
twork.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating granting a new trial on the grounds that he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit precedent.”
The issue is whether record companies have to prove anyone else actually downloaded their copyrighted songs, or whether it’s enough to argue that a defendant made copyrighted music available for copying.
The recording industry has argued that all it has to prove is that a defendant made the music available.
Music-sharers have argued that the only proven downloaders of their music were investigators working for the record companies themselves.
Under Davis' instructions to jurors, the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But Davis wrote in today’s order that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minnesota, that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He’s giving the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“At this time my attorney is working on it and until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” Thomas said early this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights belonged to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. The original lawsuit accused her of offering 1,702 songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network.
Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, her attorney, Brian Toder, said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record company attorney Richard Gabriel did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Record companies have sued at least 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.
Brainerd woman hit with $222,000 music downloading verdict may get new trial
Duluth News Tribune and Associated Press
Published Thursday, May 15, 2008
A Minnesota woman ordered to pay $222,000 in the nation’s first music download trial may get another chance with a jury. But the lead attorney for the recording industry said the evidence against the woman remains “overwhelming.”
In October, a federal jury in Duluth decided that Jammie Thomas of Brainerd was liable for $222,000 in damages for will-fully committing copyright infringement, distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing network.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating a new trial because he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit prece-dent.”
Jammie Thomas [2007 file/Duluth News Tribune]
RELATED CONTENT
Oct. 5: Duluth Jury orders Brainerd woman to pay $222,000 for distributing music files
Oct. 5: Music pirating verdict doesn't faze Duluth college students
Davis told jurors that the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But in today’s order, Davis wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minne-sota, and states that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He gave the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“This technical legal issue doesn’t change the facts and the evidence in this case,” said Richard L. Gabriel, the Denver lawyer who led the case for the record companies’ case. “The evidence of actual copying and actual distribution was over-whelming. The jury found that Ms. Thomas willfully infringed the record companies’ copyrights.”
“We don’t believe that the court should disturb the unanimous verdict of the 12 jurors in this case,” he said. “Ultimately, if we have to retry this case, we are willing and prepared to do so without any hesitation.”
Thomas said her attorney, Brian Toder, was working on the case.
“Until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” she said this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights be-longed to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, Toder said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record companies have sued more than 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.
or $222,000 in damages for willfully committing copyright infringement by distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing neA Minnesota woman ordered to pay $222,000 in the nation’s first music download trial may get another chance with a jury. But the lead attorney for the recording industry said the evidence against the woman remains “overwhelming.”
In October, a federal jury in Duluth decided that Jammie Thomas of Brainerd was liable for $222,000 in damages for will-fully committing copyright infringement, distributing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing network.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating a new trial because he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit precedent.”
Davis told jurors that the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But in today’s order, Davis wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minne-sota, and states that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He gave the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“This technical legal issue doesn’t change the facts and the evidence in this case,” said Richard L. Gabriel, the Denver lawyer who led the case for the record companies’ case. “The evidence of actual copying and actual distribution was over-whelming. The jury found that Ms. Thomas willfully infringed the record companies’ copyrights.”
“We don’t believe that the court should disturb the unanimous verdict of the 12 jurors in this case,” he said. “Ultimately, if we have to retry this case, we are willing and prepared to do so without any hesitation.”
Thomas said her attorney, Brian Toder, was working on the case.
“Until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” she said this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights be-longed to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, Toder said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record companies have sued more than 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.
twork.
However, in an order filed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis wrote that he’s contemplating granting a new trial on the grounds that he may have given the jury instructions “contrary to binding 8th Circuit precedent.”
The issue is whether record companies have to prove anyone else actually downloaded their copyrighted songs, or whether it’s enough to argue that a defendant made copyrighted music available for copying.
The recording industry has argued that all it has to prove is that a defendant made the music available.
Music-sharers have argued that the only proven downloaders of their music were investigators working for the record companies themselves.
Under Davis' instructions to jurors, the act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network violated the owners’ copyright regardless of whether actual distribution was shown.
But Davis wrote in today’s order that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minnesota, that infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”
Davis wrote that neither side presented that earlier decision to him. He’s giving the two sides until noon on May 29 to submit briefs on whether he committed an error. The parties have until noon on June 5 to submit reply briefs.
The court will hear oral arguments on July 1 in Duluth.
“At this time my attorney is working on it and until I hear back from him I can’t comment on it,” Thomas said early this afternoon when asked for her reaction to Davis’s order.
Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings sued Thomas, alleging that SafeNet, their anti-piracy contractor, found a KaZaA user called “tereastarr'” offering 1,702 songs for others to download on Feb. 21, 2005. SafeNet downloaded tracks whose copyrights belonged to the record companies and linked them to Thomas's Internet address with Charter Communications.
Jurors ordered her to pay $222,000, which was $9,250 for each of the 24 songs record companies brought up in her trial. The original lawsuit accused her of offering 1,702 songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network.
Davis told jurors the willful damage range was from $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.
Thomas has not yet had to pay the verdict while it has been on appeal, her attorney, Brian Toder, said today. Toder had asked for a new trial because he said the $222,000 verdict was unconstitutionally out of proportion to the damages against the record companies.
Record company attorney Richard Gabriel did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Record companies have sued at least 26,000 people for distributing music online. Some cases have been dismissed, and many defendants settled for a few thousand dollars. Thomas, who makes $36,000 a year working for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, was the first to take the record companies all the way to a trial.