Judge Tosses Out Verdict Against Minn. Mom Accused Of File Sharing — RIAA Music Downloads — A judge with common sense. Hooray.
Common Sense Hero 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.
Interesting backgrounder on the Judge here.
“Common Sense Hero”
Well said.
Definitely a common sense hero!
Not a good day for justice, whatever you think of the RIAA.
Thomas was found guily by a jury of her peers, acting on the same instructions the same Judge now thinks mean something else altogether. Well why didn’t he say so at the time?
When Judges go crazy and overthrow jury verdicts you know something stinks.
WooHoo! [HERO]
The fact that this judge isn’t so old as to not understand technology surely helped.
Michael Davis – remote handshake
#2 Don’t get too used to it, there aren’t very many like him around, especially in the court system.
Great decision!
I was reading an article recently about patents and copyrights where the author was pointing out all the industries that don’t have either and those industries have plenty of innovation. I’ve resisted this idea of eliminating patents and copyrights but his argument was pretty compelling. Patents and copyrights are essentially a monopoly over the copies of an idea. There would still be plagiarism and trademark law to prevent fraud. I’m still thinking it out.
Bravo.
So there ARE sane judges left. Halleujah! Nice job, judge. You’ve restored my faith in the system…a little bit.
#3 – Steve – Unfortunately juries are easily influenced by high power expensive attorneys like the RIAA has.
I am from MN and having done some legal work here, I can tell you this judge is a diamond amongst the gravel of most judges in this state. The rumors of the bullying and pay outs the RIAA gave to “appropriate officials” during the original trial are of legendary (albeit anecdotal) proportions in this state. I have also been involved in the music industry in Minneapolis since the early 80’s. One only has to read Steve Albini’s tirade entitled “The Problem With Music” that explains how my friend’s band was completely robbed by it’s record label after making over $3.5million for their label (a Google search will probably lead you to Negativland’s website which has reprinted the article in it’s entirety). The recording industry claiming they are fighting for the welfare of their artists is so disingenuous it makes me sick.
Right Wing folk do not fear this liberal judge fore the RIAA’s attorneys will appeal by making him look like someone more suited to mop the floors than to be a judge.
#10 “Unfortunately juries are easily influenced by high power expensive attorneys like the RIAA has.”
Have seen the make up of most juries? Mostly brain dead.
Not a good day for justice, whatever you think of the RIAA.
Thomas was found guily by a jury of her peers, acting on the same instructions the same Judge now thinks mean something else altogether. Well why didn’t he say so at the time?
When Judges go crazy and overthrow jury verdicts, you know something stinks.
Nicely timed. Because there’s this new movie coming out called “Flash of Genius”, may be the “Tucker” story of this era. It’s about an inventor who came up with the idea of the delayed windshield wiper. And how Ford Motors and the other makers, stole it from him. And fought to never pay him a dime or give him any credit for it. Eventually the courts did decide in favor of the inventor, and awarded him millions. But last I heard, he still hadn’t received a penny of the judgment. And this had been going on for 20 years! So the moral of the story might be that the corporate giants will try and get away with whatever the want to. And the average joes of the world, can’t count on their government to help protect their rights. Hey, this also applies to the Wall Street Financial bailout, doesn’t it?
Anyway, the MPAA and RIAA are the giants of this posting. And they’ve probably stolen lots of music out from under artists, with highly questionable contract terms. But don’t let joe average lend a copy of a tune to a friend. Or the weight of the court system will go after him. It’s a ridiculous misuse of our courts to prosecute average citizens, over the imagined loss of sales of media by super rich media peddlers. As if their product is anything more than luxury goods, anyway. There are far worse crimes going on right now, that are waiting to be tried. But these music barons get their cases moved to the front. They should do legal triage on these clowns. Let hear these cases only after all the murders and rapists are locked away.
Dipshits? You are kind!!
The MAFIAA will hold on to our culture until it shrivels and rots from disuse and then flush it down the toilet when the time is up on their exclusive copyrights, never to be seen or heard from again, except for fragments preserved by people who have broken the law by removing DRM and keeping it in private collections.
I wouldn’t cross the street to piss on these bastards and their shithead lawyers if they were on fire.
>joe average lend a copy of a tune to a friend.
I’m sure that’s exactly what happens on Kazaa. Just friends swapping tunes.
I’m sure you have no objection to removing anonymity then? Or having the RIAA upload files that will kill your computer? After all people are only downloading from friends, so they’ll never be hurt.
The issue is cruel and unusal punishment. I have actually been expecting the draconion aspect of this law to get struck down.
The punishment is way out of line for the crime committed but hey, You Congress vermine got his fee.
Hope, at a time when some is desperately needed, that Common Sense may one day prevail.
The Judge made a good call. Most civil courts have a system where the loser may ask the Judge to reconsider a specific point of law. The Judge agreed and wrote
… the term “distribution” does not apply to simply making music available. It requires actual dissemination.
The RIAA had argued the law to the jury that distribution did NOT required anyone else to actually receive a copy.
The Judge also found the damages to be wildly excessive. Generally a damage award may not exceed the actual damages.
On the face, it appears the Judge made a good call. We’ll see if the Appeal Court agrees with the Judge.