p2pnet news | RIAA News:- If Tanya Andersen is an example of what a couple of brave and determined people can achieve against Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the attack on another single mother, Jammie Thomas, epitomises just how far the Big 4 record labels are willing to go, and just how low they’re prepared to sink,  in their efforts to gain complete and total control of the Net as the online distribution vehicle of the 21st digital century.

Thomas was vilified by the mainstream media online and off.

But when Michael Davis, the judge who oversaw the case, admitted he’d made a mistake in law, the corporate press was equally conspicuous by the absence of its reporting on the shocking revelation.

Below is a digest of p2pnet stories on the Jammie Thomas file sharing case, up to June 24, 2008.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

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First-ever RIAA trial? - Definitely stay tuned
September 27th, 2007

An estimated 30,000 innocent men, women and children across America have been wrongly accused of being massive online distributors of copyrighted music.

The misnamed Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the US spin organisation run by EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) with Warner Music bringing up the rear as the only American company, has been able to use the lawsuits to suggest it’s won countless copyright infringement (it prefers the word ‘violation’) lawsuits.

Yet no one has ever appeared before a civil court or jury, or been found guilty of anything, let alone copyright infringement.

Have there been cases, but is the RIAA keeping quiet because it doesn’t want to make its failures publicly known?

Possibly, but p2pnet understands from two separate sources that to date, there’s never been a trial.

However, that could be about to change.

First RIAA trial starts tomorrow - Citizen reporters needed
October 1st, 2007

Citizen reporters are making the difference. Ask the people in Myanmar or, a lot closer to home, ask the families in America who are being viciously and relentlessly victimised by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

However, for the first time since 2003 when the RIAA launched its first attack, a case is actually going to trial.

And it’s slated to begin tomorrow.

The defendent is Jamie Thomas, a First Nations single mother of two who lives in Minnesota.

Thanks to the cooperation of the lamescream mainstream media, the Big 4 members of the organised music cartel have been able to scam most of America into believing they’ve successfully identified thousands of massive online distributors of copyrighted music, and prosecuted them.

It’s all flim-flam. Pure baloney. Just like the bulk of claims and accusations emanating from the Big 4 and all the RIAA-like alphabet organisations which front for it around the world.

But as p2pnet has been stressing for years, the realtiy is: not one of the innocent 30,000 men, women and children accused of being illicit file sharers, an offence which doesn’t exist in law, civil or criminal, has ever appeared in a civil court before a judge or jury.

Now, to its disgust, the RIAA has been told it can’t hand in 784 pages of documents it’d failed to produce until two weeks before the trial date.

Duluth RIAA p2p file sharing trial - BE THERE !!!
October 2nd, 2007

Citizen reporters are making the difference. Ask the people in Myanmar or, a lot closer to home, ask the families in America who are being viciously and relentlessly victimised by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

However, for the first time since 2003 when the RIAA launched its first attack, a case is actually going to trial.

And it’s slated to begin tomorrow.

The defendent is Jamie Thomas, a First Nations single mother of two who lives in Minnesota.

Thanks to the cooperation of the lamescream mainstream media, the Big 4 members of the organised music cartel have been able to scam most of America into believing they’ve successfully identified thousands of massive online distributors of copyrighted music, and prosecuted them.

It’s all flim-flam. Pure baloney. Just like the bulk of claims and accusations emanating from the Big 4 and all the RIAA-like alphabet organisations which front for it around the world.

But as p2pnet has been stressing for years, the realtiy is: not one of the innocent 30,000 men, women and children accused of being illicit file sharers, an offence which doesn’t exist in law, civil or criminal, has ever appeared in a civil court before a judge or jury.

Now, to its disgust, the RIAA has been told it can’t hand in 784 pages of documents it’d failed to produce until two weeks before the trial date.

Amateur musician on RIAA jury - ‘That says a lot Tuesday
October 2nd, 2007

An amateur musician is among 12 jurors who’ll decide if Jammie Thomas, an Ojibwe mother of two, is the filesharing criminal and thief Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal say she is.

She’s the first of the estimated 30,000 men women and children across America whom the Big 4’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) says are “devastating” the corporate music industry, to actually reach a civil judge and jury.

But Brian Toder, her lawyer, says the labels haven’t even proven that Thomas, who works for the Department of Natural Resources of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota, shared the songs.

“Most of the 26,000 people the record industry group has sued have settled by paying a few thousand dollars,” continues Associated Press incorrectly.

In August last year when the number of people who’d received subpoenas had reached 8,400, only 1,700 had been frightened into paying up under the RIAA’s extortionate settlement scheme, admitted spokesman Jonathan Lamy, and it’s unlikely that the proportions are very different today, especially given that more and more people are standing up to the Big 4 and their hired legal guns.

RIAA vs Jammie Thomas: Day 1 - Keeping an open mind
October 3rd, 2007

Years back, then MPAA boss Jack Valenti, now deceased, developed the theme that studio workers were being thrown into the streets by their thousands because of staggering financial losses caused by piracy.

It wasn’t true then, and isn’t true now, but it looked good in the media and was reported as fact.

Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG know a good thing when they see it so they picked the line up and their various spin organisations, such as their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), have been using it ever since as part of disingenuous claims that ‘pirates’ are wreaking terrible havoc within the multi-billion-dollar corporate music industry.

Today marks Day 2 of a trial in which the Big 4 will try to convince a Duluth Minnesota, civil jury that as Tereastarr, Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two, is guilty of using Sharman Networks’ Kazaa P2P file application - itself on the wrong end of a file sharing lawsuit - to illegally distribute 1,702 copyrighted music files online, with Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer Richard Gabriel leading the way for the labels.

The trial, the first in which an RIAA victim confronts the labels in an open court of law, is expected to run until Thursday at the least and will define how the sue ‘em all campaign will proceed.

Jammie Thomas vs the RIAA: Day II - Cary Sherman barred
October 3rd, 2007

“A single mother has made legal history by forcing America’s biggest record companies into a costly and potentially embarrassing trial after she refused to pay an out-of-court settlement for alleged music piracy.

“Jammie Thomas, a Native American from Minnesota, is one of 26,000 people the Recording Industry Association of America has sued over the past four years for alleged use of music ‘file-sharing’ software. But she is the first to refuse to settle and has forced the music industry into a trial that could set a legal precedent. ‘I refuse to be bullied,’ she said yesterday. ‘I know that I did not do this, and the jury will hear that I did not do this’.”

She isn’t, of course, the first to refuse to settle, far from it - ask Patti Santangelo and Tanya Andersen - but the quote is interesting nonetheless because it doesn’t come in a North American media report.

Instead, its the intro to a story in Britain’s upper-crust The Times, alarming - for EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US) - because it proves the story is gaining legs with the reading public in Europe, something the Big 4 definitely don’t want and won’t like.

Because the Thomas case is only one element of a massive, carefully orchestrated international campaign on the part of the Big 4 cartel to gain control of how, and by whom, music is distributed online.

RIAA’s Cary Sherman is ’surprised’ - Wow! I took this long?
October 4th, 2007

In another blinding example of RIAA mis- and disinformation, Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, says he’s, “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial”.

He was talking about the case slated to wind up today.

In it, Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas says she’s completely innocent of accusations that she’s a massive online distributor of copyrighted music.

The absolute last thing Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) wanted was for it to actually reach the courts.They tried to get Thomas to ’settle’ but she instead decided to use the equivalent of the amount they tried to extort from her to hire lawyer Brian Toder.

The object of the RIAA exercise is to fire off subpoenas to as many people as possible using spurious information supplied by discredited companies such as Media Sentry, which is front and centre in the Thomas trial.

The labels can then use the ever-cooperative mainstream media to give the totally false impression that numerous trials have been successfully concluded and the thousands of people have been found guilty of copyright infringement when in fact Thomas’ case is the first to reach the civil courts.

Notwithstanding, Sherman professes he’s surprised it’s taken this long.

After four years, “it’s become business as usual, nobody really thinks about it,” Associated Press has him saying.

Will Jammie Thomas be found guilty? - Stay tuned …
October 4th, 2007

A question posed by jurors at the trial of RIAA victim Jammie Thomas suggests they’re seriously considering finding her guilty as charged - that’s to say, guilty of copyright infringement, says Wired’s David Kravets from Duluth, Minnesota, where it’s winding up.

They’ve asked US district judge Michael Davis to, “instruct them on the minimum amount of damages they could render,” says the story, going on:

The verdict form said if jurors believe Thomas’ file sharing on Kazaa was “willful,” they can ding her for up to $150,000 for each of the 24 violations in the case. But the form left off the minimum, $750, per violation.

“They just want to know what the bottom figure is for willful,” the judge told lawyers during a brief proceeding.

She has 24 counts lodged against her.

(ex-)RIAA-er Oppenheim rears his head - The bad penny
October 4th, 2007

Ex-RIAA employee Matt ‘The Dentist’ Oppenheim has been making his presence felt during the Jammie Thomas file sharing trial.

He acquired the sobriquet following his attack on Jesse Jordan in 2004.

He left the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to work for Jenner & Block, another Big 4-favoured law firm.

Said RIAA president Cary Sherman at the time:

While we are disappointed that Matt is leaving, we are delighted that he will be joining the firm of Jenner & Block where we will continue to rely on him.

Truer words were never spoken.

Oppenheim once said the “Fourth Amendment does not apply to (the RIAA),” speaking of the lawsuits filed by the RIAA against file-sharers.

RIAA vs Jammie Thomas: RIAA wins - The champagne corks are popping
October 4th, 2007

he champagne corks will be popping in RIAA-land.

“The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $220,000 in damages against her.” ~ Associated Press.

“Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation’s first file-sharing case to go before a jury.” ~ Wired.

“After less than four hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Duluth, Minnesota, handed the RIAA a victory in the first file-sharing case to go to trial, finding that Jammie Thomas willfully infringed on the record labels’ copyrights, awarding them $222,000 in damages.” ~ Ars Technica.

“[Editorial opinion: I’m sorry to hear that Ms. Thomas lost, but I don’t think the case is over by a long shot; the verdict - based as it upon an entirely erroneous jury instruction going to the very heart of the case - will almost definitely be set aside on appeal.-R.B.] ~ Recording Industry vs The People.

The RIAA ghouls smelled blood - But it isn’t over yet!
October 5th, 2007

A verdict of $222,000.00 for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76?

In a case where there was zero evidence of the defendant having transferred any of those files?.

It is one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law.

If the judge doesn’t set aside the verdict sua sponte, I expect there to be motion practice to set aside the verdict, based on its obvious unconstitutionality and numerous other reasons, and if that fails I expect there to be a successful appeal.

It is an outrage, and I hope it is a wakeup call to the world that we all need to start supporting the defendants in these cases, and the attorneys who are sacrificing so much to represent them. And the support cannot be with words, it must be with check books.

And it cannot be next year, it must be now.

All the business people who make a living from the vibrancy, democracy, and freedom of expression which is the internet, need to get behind the RIAA’s victims.

If they do not, the world in which they hope to thrive and prosper will disappear rapidly.

The RIAA ghouls smelled blood in Duluth, and I guess they were right.

But it isn’t over ……

Ray Beckerman - Recording Industry vs The People

Hit the RIAA and Big Music where it hurts! - Show them who needs who
October 5th, 2007

Well, they’ve done it.

Four venal record companies, EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US), have bankrupted a single mother with two children in their lust for money.

In what has to be one of the most outrageous verdicts ever recorded in America, without a shred of hard evidence, judge Michael J. Davis virtually instructed the jury to find Jamie Thomas guilty of copyright infringement, saying she must pay close to a quarter of a million dollars.

In the process, he made a mockery of the principle of fair use and a fair trial.

To all intents and purposes, the Big 4, all members of an organised music cartel who’ve been found guilty of price-fixing and bribery, among other things, own the RIAA, short for Recording Industry Association of America, and scores of similar organisations around the world, for example the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association), ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association), and so on.

They’re determined to gain control of how ‘product,’ as they correctly call their shabby and over-priced offerings, is distributed online, and to make sure they, and no one else, are doing the distributing.

It isn’t enough for them to share the pie. They want it all and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Ultimately, they’ll lose, but not because of public opinion, not because of court decisions and not because they suddenly realise suing their own customers is a ridiculous path to take.

It’ll be because their shareholders tell them ‘enough is enough’ and to make that happen sooner rather than later, it’s up to you to stop buying ‘product’ from the Big 4 and from any of the companies linked to the RIAA —- all 1,636 of them, listed here.

RIAA victim Jammie Thomas will appeal - ‘They set themselves up’
October 8th, 2007

To no one’s surprise, Jammie Thomas, aka Tereastarr, and her lawyer, Brian Toder, will appeal the finding by a Minnesota jury which levied $220,000 in damages against her after deciding she was guilty of sharing copyrighted music online.

“We’re going on one single issue - whether simply making recordings available is in and of itself an infringement,” Toder told p2pnet this morining.

He was back in his office after spending the weekend “away from cellphones” on his tree farm near the Canadian border.

“There’s never been a single case where that’s been squarely an object of appeal,” he says.

“Were doing this so some decent law can be formed and relied on.

“The labels won the trial but they set themselves up for an appeal which can throw a wrench in this machine of theirs.”

Let the ‘Jammie’ RIAA artists know - Tell them what you think
October 8th, 2007

Here, from Oakleeman, a server admin down in Texas, is an interesting list of artists from the 24 songs dredged up by the RIAA in their disastrous attempt to turn Jammie Thomas ‘Don’t let this be you!‘ case lesson.

Jammie and her lawyer, Brian Tode, are appealing the decision. But don’t let it rest there.

We don’t need them but they need us, so …….

And, says Oakleeman, he’s also planning on, “on respectfully voicing my displeasure on the artists’ message boards.”

Excellent idea …..

Guns N Roses - http://web.gunsnroses.com - http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses - customerservice@website.gunsnroses.com
Vanessa Williams - http://www.vanessawilliamsmusic.com - http://www.myspace.com/175437040
Janet Jackson - http://www.janet-jackson.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/janetjackson - http://janetjackson.emiforums.com
Gloria Estefan - http://www.90millas.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/gloriaestefan
Goo Goo Dolls - http://www.googoodolls.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/googoodolls
Journey - http://www.journeymusic.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/journey
Sara McLachlan - http://www.sarahmclachlan.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/sarahmclachlan
Aerosmith - http://www.aerosmith.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/aerosmith - http://forums.aeroforceone.com/
Linkin Park - http://linkinpark.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/linkinpark - http://forums.linkinpark.com/
Def Leppard - http://www.defleppard.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/defleppard - http://forum.defleppard.com/
Reba McEntire - http://www.reba.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/rebamcentire - http://www.reba.com/rebanet/
Bryan Adams - http://www.bryanadams.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/bryanadamsmusic - http://www.bryanadams.com/index.php?target=contact
No Doubt - http://www.nodoubt.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/nodoubt - http://forums.nodoubt.com/
Sheryl Crow - http://www.sherylcrow.com/ - http://www.sherylcrow.com/boards/default.aspx?cid=224
Richard Marx - http://www.richardmarx.com - http://www.myspace.com/officialrichardmarx - http://www.richardmarxonline.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
Destiny’s Child - http://www.destinyschild.com/ - http://forums1.columbiarecords.com/Columbia/Destiny%27sChild/
Green Day - http://www.greenday.com - http://www.myspace.com/greenday

First Jammie Thomas juror speaks out - ‘She’s a liar ….’
October 9th, 2007

Although the RIAA has won this battle, it’s lost the war, irretrievably, p2pnet posted when the news broke that a Minnesota jury had come down on the side of the corporate music industry in the Jammie Thomas file sharing trial.

“Meanwhile, it’ll be interesting to see who of the jury will be first to speak,” we added.

Now we know.

It’s ex-juror Michael Hegg, a 38-year-old steelworker from Duluth who told Wired’s Threat Level jurors found Thomas’ claim that she was the victim of a spoof, “unbelievable,” going on:

“She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars,” Hegg said. “Spoofing? We’re thinking, ‘Oh my God, you got to be kidding’.”

“She’s a liar,” added Hegg.

New Jammie Thomas juror steps forward - ‘It’s tough …’
October 11th, 2007

A second juror has decided to break the silence in a continuation of the Jammie Thomas (right) file sharing controversy. Thomas, 30, an Ojibwe mother of two from Minnesota, was fined almost $250,000 in a civil trial brought against her by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Accused of being a music copyright infringer, she’s appealing the decision and on Tuesday, Michael Hegg, a 38-year-old steelworker from Duluth, where trial was staged (word used advisedly), called Thomas a liar. But Thomas wasn’t taking the slur lying down. Hegg admits he’s never been online and, “I don’t need to say too much, obviously,” Thomas said, according to CNET News. He’d stressed Thomas’ Kazaa account username, Tereastarr, was the same as her email, online shopping, online dating and MySpace account usernames. But, “This person (Hegg) has never been on the Internet, so how can he say whether my story is possible?” - asks Thomas in the story, adding: “I’ve been contacted by Internet security experts who said that spoofing my address would have been trivial. Internet illiterate people are not going to be able to understand that.” p2pnet wondered who’d be the next juror to break his or her silence and that turned out to be Lisa Reinke from International Falls. “It’s tough because you can’t allow yourself to get involved emotionally,” Associated Press has her saying. “You’re there to do a job, and that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Jammie Thomas demands a new trial - ‘70 cents per song’
October 15th, 2007

Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas, ordered to pay the corporate music industry almost a quarter of a million dollars, says she wants a new trial.

“In what has to be one of the most outrageous verdicts ever recorded in America, without a shred of hard evidence,” judge Michael J. Davis virtually instructed the jury to find her guilty of copyright infringement, p2pnet said recently.

Now, Thomas, known online as Tereastarr, and her lawyer, Brian Toder, say they want another hearing, “on the issue of damages” to determine the extent of the actual damages or harm suffered because of Thomas’ alleged music uploads.

In a court document, they say any award above and beyond the value of the tunes, “is purely punitive, and as such must be scrutinized by the Court to insure that it is not grossly excessive, thereby violating the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution”.

Alternatively, the document goes on, “the Court is urged to order remittitur.”

RIAA responds to Jammie Thomas - A ‘fair and reasonable manner’
October 16th, 2007

“We seek to resolve this case in a fair and reasonable manner. It is unfortunate that the defendant continues to avoid responsibility for her actions. We will continue to defend our rights.”

Three mis-statements in three sentences and not surprisingly, they’re all from Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

They’re in reference to the Jammie Thomas case and as p2pnet revealed yesterday, Thomas, a mother of two from Minnesota, wants a new trial having been ordered to pay $222,000 for her alleged copyright infringement of song files with an estimated value of less than $17.00.

But, “In a court document, they [the labels] say any award above and beyond the value of the tunes, ‘is purely punitive, and as such must be scrutinized by the Court to insure that it is not grossly excessive, thereby violating the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution’,” we posted.

Jammie Thomas: her story in her own words - Telling it like it is
November 2nd, 2007

Through their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) and all the other so-called trade organisations strategically sited in major cities around the world, the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel are running a hugely expensive international disinformation campaign (a charitable description) designed to show they’re being “devastated” (their word) by their own customers, whom they’re calling criminals and thieves, even though no crime has been committed and nothing has been stolen.

These people are massive online illegal distributors of copyrighted music causing record industry support workers to be thrown onto the streets, out of work, and who are costing the labels billions of dollars in lost profits, say Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US).

In America, and an estimated 30,000 people, some of them very young children, had been subpoenaed by the RIAA, accused of being file sharing criminals.

It’s, “no secret that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to the growth of online file sharing with a wave of copyright infringement litigation,” wrote James Alonso, Marc Friedenberg, Michael Nguyen, Shawn Oakley and Sarah Calvert from The Columbia Science & Technology Law Review.

“Often, the individuals targeted by the RIAA fear the overwhelming costs of defending themselves in court, and many have agreed to pay large settlements.”

Often, but not always.

Now, inspired by the examples of people such as the five very reluctant heroines mentioned below, increasing numbers of victims are deciding not to let themselves be terrorised into settling.

The five, courageous in every sense of the word, are:

• Patti Santangelo, a New York mother of five children, two of whom have now become RIAA targets
• Rae-Jay Schwartz, another mother, bound to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, the terrible central nervous system disease
• Marie Lindor, a 57-year-old home health aid whose knowledge of computers and computer systems is zero
• Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living off a disability pension
• Jammie Thomas, a young mother of two from Minnesota

But it’s Thomas, the first of the American RIAA victims to actually appear in court, who’s caught the attention of the international mainstream media for more than just a day or two.

Horrified by the negative (for them) PR the case has been generating, using their connections, political power and influence, the labels are doing their best to distort facts and spin Thomas as a cold schemer whose depredations forced the RIAA to take her to court.

Cary Sherman, the organisation’s chief spin doctor, said he was “surprised it took this long for one of the industry lawsuits to go to trial” when in fact, the organisation has done everything it can to stop any of these cases actually reaching a judge and jury.

Thomas has also achieved two other firsts:

As far as I know, she’s the first to launch her own forum, and for the first time since she was forced into the limelight, she’s telling her own story, in her own words.

Don’t complain, RIAA tells Jammie Thomas - Calculated decisions
November 9th, 2007

Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA has now responded to Jammie Thomas’ request for a new trial.

Bottom line?

Stop complaining.

Jammie Thomas answers the RIAA - Response filed
November 28th, 2007

Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota mother who was the first of the RIAA’s victims to actually appear in court, has now filed her reply papers in further support of her motion to set aside the verdict, and in response to the RIAA’s opposition papers.

DoJ backs RIAA in Jammie Thomas case - ‘Impossible to calculate the damages’
December 4th, 2007

In the Bush administration’s most blatant support of the commercial music industry yet, the US Department of Justice has stepped in on behalf of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA in the Jammie Thomas case.

The DoJ is filing a brief defending the constitutionality of the $9,250-per-song-file jury verdict, says Recording Industry vs The People.

America’s top law agency tries to justify the amount by claiming the damages awarded aren’t, “so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense or obviously unreasonable”, and that it’s, “impossible to calculate the damages caused by a single infringement, particularly for infringement that occurs over the internet,” says Ray Beckerman.

RIAA victim Jammie Thomas seeks new lawyer - Might it be you?
January 1st, 2008

Last week two off-the-record sources told p2pnet Jammie Thomas, the first of the RIAA victims to actually appear in civil court, was looking for a lawyer to represent her in her appeal.

We were asked to keep it quite for the moment and now , “Sad news!” - says her blog, going on:

“Brian Toder and his law firm are only representing her for the remitter motion currently before the court and not for the appeal due to lack of funds. She confirmed that the donations collected here are still going into her legal defense fund and will be used to finance her appeal. She is now in search of a capable attorney ready to take the appeal either pro bono or for what is raised through fundraising efforts.

“If you can help, please contact Jammie by email: jammie [at] freejammie [dot] com.”

RIAA ‘misspeaks’ itself: Jammie Thomas case - Can you say ‘mistrial’?
January 5th, 2008

Yesterday, “National Public Radio hosted in on-air debate between Marc Fisher, the Post columnist, and Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),” p2pnet posted, under the header, RIAA boss admits witness ‘misspoke’.

The ‘misspeaking’ came on the part of RIAA ‘expert witness’ Jennifer Pariser, a Sony BMG lawyer, during the trial of Minnesota mother-of-two Jammie Thomas, who ended up being ordered to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in damages to Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’, members of the Big 4 organised music cartel.

“Hmmm,” said Aaron in a p2pnet Reader’s Write.

“Perhaps grounds for an appeal?”

Thomas lawyer Toder praises RIAA’s Gabriel - ‘Standup guy’
May 7th, 2008

Brian Toder, the attorney who unsuccessfully acted for Jammie Thomas, the only one of the RIAA’s 40,000 victims to appear a civil court, was instrumental in helping Richard Gabriel, the RIAA lawyer who defeated him, gain a much-coveted post.

Gabriel was under consideration for a judgeship in Colorado and officials who were vetting the RIAA lawyer called Toder, seeking his opinion.

“I gave him a very favorable rating,” Wired has Toder saying.

“I think he’s a standup guy and a good lawyer. And I think he would be a good judge.”

Jammie Thomas judge cops to ‘manifest error’ - ‘Contemplating granting a new trial’
May 15th, 2008

In what’s likely be the worst upset yet for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA, a judge has admitted he made a “manifest error of law” in ruling Jammie Thomas was guilty of copyright infringement.

A federal jury in Duluth, Minnesota, decided Thomas had willfully infringed on the record label copyrights, awarding the labels $222,000 in damages.

At the time, “I’m sorry to hear that Ms. Thomas lost, but I don’t think the case is over by a long shot,” predicted Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman, going on, “the verdict - based as it upon an entirely erroneous jury instruction going to the very heart of the case - will almost definitely be set aside on appeal.”

Now, judge Michael Davis (right), who presided in the original Thomas case, is, “contemplating granting a new trial … on the grounds that the Court committed a manifest error of law when, in Jury Instruction No. 15, it instructed the jury that ‘[t]he act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without licensefrom the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown’.”

Thomas has consistently denied RIAA accusations that she was an illegal online distributor of copyrighted music.

Significantly Davis, ruling on the only case the RIAA has so far managed to get into court despite the 40,000 subpoenas it’s fired at equally innocent men, women and children across America, brought up the Jeffrey and Pamela Howell case which effectively destroyed the RIAA’s theories of ‘making available’ and ‘offering to distribute’ theories.

He also specifically invited “interested parties” to submit amicus briefs.

Rights groups file RIAA v Jammie Thomas brief - 18-page document
June 23rd, 2008

Four online rights groups have added their weight to that of 10 US law professors in support of Jammie Thomas, the mother of two who’s still the only one of the RIAA victims to actually go to court.

A jury decided Thomas had to pay $9,250 for each of 24 songs Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA claimed she’d infringed by sharing them online.

But judge Michael Davis, who’d presided over the civil trial, later admitted he’d made what he described as a “manifest error of law” in telling the jury 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”.

He also specifically invited “interested parties” to submit amicus briefs and professors Annemarie Bridy, University of Idaho; Michael W. Carroll, Villanova University; Ralph D. Clifford, Southern New England School of Law; Thomas F. Cotter, University of Minnesota; Jon M. Garon, Hamline University; Stephen McJohn, Suffolk University; Tyler T. Ochoa, Santa Clara University; Niels B. Schaumann, William Mitchell College of Law; and Christopher Sprigman, University of Virginia responded …..

MPAA joins RIAA in Jammie Thomas attack - Direct proof
June 24th, 2008

“In Capitol v. Thomas, a number of groups have accepted Judge Davis’s invitation to submit amicus curiae briefs on the issue of whether a manifest error of law was committed when the jury was instructed that Jammie Thomas could be liable for just ‘making files available’,” posted Ray Beckerman on Recording Industry vs The People over the weekend, going on:

“The deadline for filing of amicus briefs was Friday, June 20th at noon.”

The pic on the right shows “massive copyright infringer” Thomas with her two sons Tristan (left) and Tyler.

Beckerman was talking about the growing number of academics and others calling for a retrial in the case in which judge Michael Davis, who heard it, admitted making a “manifest error of law” in telling the civil jury the, “act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without licensefrom the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown”.

Davis also asked “interested parties” to submit amicus briefs and Beckerman’s post includes a list of the briefs filed so far (see below).

However, in a 25-page amicus curiae brief, the MPAA claims the, “act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without a licence from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown”.

D-For-Decision-Day for RIAA, Jammie Thomas, August 2, 2008

p2pnet news view P2P | RIAA News:- Monday will a Capital Letter day for victims of the Big 4 labels in the corporate music sue ‘em all conspiracy, and Big 4 front organisation, the RIAA.

It’s the day federal judge Michael Davis will decide whether or not to overturn a decision against Jammie Thomas, a former user of Kazaa, the Sharman Networks P2P file sharing application which appears in the bulk of the RIAA cases, and which itself is now the subject of lawsuit.

And it looks as though a new RIAA lawyer, Jenner & Block’s Donald B. Verrilli Jr, is being brought in, presumably to attempt to persuade Davis to the contrary.

Verrilli was named by the Hollywood Reporter magazine as one of the top 100 ‘Power Lawyers’ in the entertainment industry for the second consecutive year, bragged J&B a couple of days ago.

Until now, Holmes Owen and Bird’s Richard Gabriel has been handling the case. But J&B is another RIAA favourite.

In July Gabriel himself became a judge in Colorado, leaving a big gap in the ranks of the RIAA’s high-priced attack   attorneys.

RIAA vs Jammie Thomas: new trial, September 24, 2008

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P | RIAA News:- A single mother of two from Minnesota is once again about to face Capitol, Sony BMG, Arista, Interscope, Warner Bros and UMG — the multi-billion-dollar Big 4 record companies, in other words — in a new trial on a date yet to be set.

RIAA v Jammie Thomas: back to Square 1, September 24, 2008

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P| RIAA:- Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s success rate in their efforts to sue some 40,000 of their own customers to force them to buy corporate ‘product,’ and to gain control of who distributes it online and by what means, has just been reduced from one to zero.

Kazaa, the RIAA and Jammie Thomas, October 17, 2008

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) and their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) can be quite properly described as hate organisations. They hate anything which even looks remotely like competition. They hate independents and independence. They hate anything which interferes with what they see as their God-given right to control how, and by whom, music is distributed online. They even hate the people who keep them in drugs and booze and who pay their bills. But there’s one commercial outfit that’s central to the vast majority of the RIAA hate lawsuits, but which has nonetheless escaped virtually unscathed: Australia’s Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa, the P2P file sharing application used by almost every RIAA victim.Currently, the highest profile Kazaa case centres on Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota mother ordered to pay the corporate music industry almost a quarter of a million dollars for allegedly infringing music copyrights. Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA thought they’d finally scored when judge Michael Davis told jurors that simply making songs available in a shared folder written to her computer hard drive by Kazaa amounted to infringement, even if actual distribution hadn’t been proved.

‘Think tank’ on RIAA v Jammie Thomas, November 18, 2008

p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- US district judge Michael Davis’ mistrial decision in the Jammie Thomas file sharing case is  “unreasoned”  and “unreasonable,”  says a “market oriented think tank”. And leading the attack on behalf of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, with Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA, together with Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney and their MPAA as extremely interested observers, is one Thomas D. Sydnor II (right), a former aide to Hollywood aficionado, senator Orrin ‘Terminator’ Hatch of INDUCE Act infamy. Snydor was, “widely credited with the Senator’s infamous ‘blow up their computers‘ solution to P2P file-sharing,” said Seth Schoen in the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Deep Links.

RIAA loses Jammie Thomas appeal, December 29, 2008

p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- The RIAA’s last-ditch effort to kill judge Michael Davis’ decision to take a long, hard second look at Capitol Records vs Jammie Thomas has failed. Media reports around the world trumpeted what Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA called a resounding triumph when a Minnesota jury said Thomas, a single mother of two, owed the Big 4 almost a quarter of a million dollars. “Unfortunately, by using Kazaa, Thomas acted like countless other Internet users,” Davis ruled when he decided there were grounds for a new trial. Thomas’ alleged acts were illegal, but common, he wrote, and while her, “status as a consumer who was not seeking to harm her competitors or make a profit” didn’t excuse her behavior, it did make the award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, “unprecedented and oppressive”. This time around, he ruled there was, “no substantial ground for a difference of opinion” on the, “question of law presented,” and allowing the RIAA’s appeal would not “materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation,” says Recording Industry vs the People.

FSF expert funds for Jammie Thomas v RIAA, January 26, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- The one major element missing in virtually all the RIAA cases used to be the lack of examination of RIAA so-called expert witnesses, the notable exception being Ray Beckerman’s grilling of Dr Doug Jacobson, whose expert testimony he reduced to rubble. Jacobson had been using materials supplied by MediaSentry, the “private investigation firm” the RIAA was forced to fire, as p2pnet revealed. Then in late 2007 the Free Software Foundation launched its Expert Witness Defense Fund, aiming to at least partially level the playing field for the innocent men, women and even children across America who were under under attack by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA. “Our concern was how the RIAA is trying to use this sledge-hammer against the poorest people in society to set precedents in copyright,” the FSF’s Peter Brown told p2pnet today. The launch of the fund, organized in coordination with Beckerman’s Recording Industry Vs The People, was vitally important and now it’s being used in the Jammie Thomas case, the most significant RIAA lawsuit to date.

RIAA victim Jammie Thomas gets expert defence, February 13, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- RIAA lawyers are the “bottom of the barrel”. The statement comes from Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman with the news that the RIAA tried to prevent its star victim, Jammie Thomas, from hiring an expert to help her defend herself in a case in which she’s being accused of being a massive online distributor of copyrighted music. But the RIAA efforts  to derail her efforts to present the facts as they really are, as opposed to the Big 4 record label cartel’s version of them, failed, and a highly qualified technical expert is now slated to testify on her behalf. During the upcoming trial, in which Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA’s will once again try to convince a civil court that the single mother of two is, in fact, a wicked file sharing criminal, Dr Yongdae Kim will be nullifying RIAA ‘technical’ testimony. The Big 4 have accused approaching 40,000 people of the nonexistent crime of sharing music with each other over the Net, but have only managed to get Thomas before a judge and jury in civil trial,  slated to start on March 11. And even that’s being re-heard, to the chagrin of the RIAA and its owners. “In Capitol Records v. Thomas, Jammie Thomas’s motion for an extension of the discovery deadline, in order to enable her to designate Assistant Professor Yongdae Kim of the University of Minnesota as her expert witness, has been granted by Magistrate Judge Raymond L. Erickson,” says . It’ll be fascinating to see RIAA ‘experts’ up against  someone who really does know what he’s talking about when it comes to the Net and technology which keeps its wheels turning. Dr Kim Kim specializes in group and network security.

Jammie Thomas vs the RIAA: round II, May 13, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- “I am a single mother of 2 beautiful boys; Tyler who is 13 and Triston, who is 11. These two are my life and they’re the reason why I do anything. It is also because of these two I decided to fight back against the RIAA. After I received the various letters from both my ISP and the RIAA, I made up my mind I was not going to be bullied into paying for something I didn’t do. My father always taught me to stand up and fight for what I believe in and I figured what better way to teach my boys this same lesson but through example.” So said Jammie Thomas in 2007. Together with approximately 40,000 other innocent people, including very young children, she’s accused by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA of being a massive  online distributor of copyrighted music. Consequently, she faced heavyweight Big 4 lawyers in a civil court trial, after which she was ordered to pay the corporate music industry almost a quarter of  a million dollars. But US district judge Michael Davis, who heard the case, declared a mistrial after admitting he’d committed a, “manifest error of law” when he told the jury the, “act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without licensefrom the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown”. Now, because the two sides have failed to reach a settlement, Jammie will have to go through it all again starting on June 15.

Jammie Thomas: facing the RIAA alone, May 16, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- I’ve never been able to understand how Brian Toder (right) was able to continue as Jammie Thomas’ lawyer.Jammie is the Minnesota mother of two who, on June 15, will for the second time take on the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and their RIAA. First time around, she was ordered to pay Big Music almost a quarter of a million dollars in ‘damages’. But judge Michael Michael Davis, who heard the case, declared a mistrial after admitting  he’d committed a, “manifest error of law” when he told the jury the, “act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without licensefrom the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown”. Now, on June 15, after the two sides failed to reach a settlement agreement, unless a lawyer with a social conscience steps forward to represent her pro bono, she’ll be standing against them alone. Because Toder who, while acting as her attorney, fulsomely praised RIAA lawyer Richard Gabriel, who was doing his best to see her pilloried, has pulled out. For the second time.

Jammie Thomas has a new lawyer! May 19, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- I’ve just spoken with a jubilant Jammie Thomas, the woman Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA tried to nail to the wall with a bill of almost a quarter of a million dollars. She’s over the moon because only days after learning Brian Toder, her previous legal representative, had decided discretion was the better part of valour, leaving her fend for herself against the Big 4 music labels, another lawyer has come forward with an offer of pro bono help. He’s K.A.D. Camara from Camara & Sibley in Houston, Texas, says Jammie. And, “He’s the youngest person in history to graduate from Harvard Law school with honors,” she points out. Nor will her trial — or, rather, her retrial — be delayed, as was expected. It’ll now go forward on June 15, as slated.

RIAA faces big trouble with new Thomas trial, May 21, 2009

p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- In an unusual statement, Brian Toder (right), Jammie Thomas’ former lawyer, has promised his firm, “will never seek any additional payment from Jammie Thomas for the considerable work we have done in her case”. Toder had been representing Thomas, a Minnesota mother said by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA to have been an illegal online file sharer, on and off for about 18 months. He recently pulled out, claiming he was owed $129,485  “for time that will never be recovered, coupled with the likelihood that a similar,  additional amount will be incurred if ordered to continue representation of defendant who originally caused [words missing] this firm by means of false representations”. This was the second time he’d decided he could no longer be her attorney. Now, having maligned Jammie by accusing her of  “false representations” without explaining what he meant, “If we are to receive any funds from this case, it will be solely from plaintiffs if Ms. Thomas-Rasset ultimately becomes the prevailing party which we believe is highly possible given the caliber of the counsel and amici on her side,” Toder says. It isn’t clear if  the promise his firm “will never seek any additional payment” means Toder and his colleagues are leaving the $129,485 on the books and will ultimately expect payment from Jammie, but will not expect more on top of that; or, if he means payment he’s already received is sufficient. On June 15 Jammie will, for the second time, take on the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and their RIAA, but this time K.A.D. ‘Kiwi’ Camara, a young lawyer from Houston, Texas, will be in her corner, representing her pro bono. The term usually means professional work undertaken without payment and often, people represented by lawyers acting for them in this way are still responsible for expenses of various kinds. But Kiwi has promised he’s working for, and with, Jamie for free all the way down the line.

‘Why I praised RIAA lawyer’: Brian Toder, June 8, 2009

p2pnet news view RIAA News:- In a ‘By the way,’ Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s ex-attorney, Brian Toder, has explained why he was so effusive in praise of Richard Gabriel (right), the Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer who, hired by the RIAA to go after Jammie, no holds barred, is now a judge. A week today, Jammie and her new lawyer,  Kiwi K.A.D. Camara, are to go up against Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA for the second time. She’s the only one of the 40,000 or so people subpoenaed by the Big 4 extortion unit to actually appear before a judge and jury.

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