Pay Big Music $1,920,000, Jammie told
p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- A verdict has been reached in Minneapolis in the first file sharing case to go to trial.
Late this afternoon a Minnesota jury decided Jammie Thomas-Rasset must pay almost two million dollars to Capital Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros Records and UMG Recordings.
The multi-billion-dollar Big 4 record labels, in other words.
“We’ve just gotten a copy of the blank special verdict form in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset,” says Ray Beckerman on Recording Industry vs The People.
“The form seems to be instructing the jury that each song file, even if it is one of several on the same album, represents a separate infringement. That is not correct, as I recall,” says Ray, adding:
“Disturbingly, neither the instructions nor the verdict form contains any instruction or inquiry about the effective dates of the copyright registration, or the date the alleged use of Kazaa began, which would be needed in order to establish a right to statutory — as opposed to compensatory — damages.”
The jury decided the penalty for each song would be a staggering $80,000.
Says the Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune »»»
In the first trial, Davis instructed the jury that the ‘act of making copyrighted sound recordings available’ violates the copyright ‘regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown.’
“Today’s instructions stressed that it is infringement to either reproduce or distribute copyrighted material, but that making something available does not constitute distribution.
In addition, the jury considered evidence including screen shots of the Kazaa file sharing network, CDs with downloaded and legitimate music, and lists of Thomas-Rasset’s personal CD collection.
UPDATE: The case is a reminder that in civil trials, simply raising some doubt about liability is not enough; lawyers need to raise lots of doubt to win the case, and Camara and Sibley were unable to do so here. The jury found Thomas-Rasset’s conduct to be willful, which means that statutory damages under the Copyright Act can range from $750 per infringement up to $150,000. In his closing statement, defense lawyer Joe Sibley made clear that even the minimum award would run $18,000 (24 songs x $750 = $18,000), an amount that he said was unfair and crippling to Thomas-Rasset. The jury decided that the per-song penalty would be $80,000, for a total damage award of $1.92 million, over $1.7 million more than the award in her first trial. Ars Technica
UPDATE II: Well I guess there is going to be a third trial. I hope that during the next trial the technical evidence will be challenged, that the issue of recoverability of statutory damages will be tested, and that the plaintiffs will be required to prove (a) dissemination of copies (b) to the public, (c) by a sale or other transfer of ownership, or by lease, rental, or lending, before being deemed to have shown an infringement of the distribution right. The nonsensical exorbitancy of the verdict actually enhances the constitutionality argument, demonstrating how open ended the statute is if the RIAA’s wild eyed interpretation of it is allowed to survive. Ray Beckerman, Recording Industry vs The People
UPDATE III (Thanks, Troll): We appreciate the jury’s service and that they take this as seriously as we do. We are pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable. Since day one, we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so. Cara Duckworth, RIAA spinster
You know what to do.
Stay tuned.
June, 2009
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June 18th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
unfuckingbelieveable
June 18th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Looks like the 222k she previously got stuck with was a bargain, then. Should have accepted the previous verdict and kept her head down.
The RIAA scumbags are gonna swiftly use this verdict to rack up their terrorist and extortion campaign to everyone all over the world now. Fuck.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
The trolls and shills we be here in force very soon.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Jammie, file chapter 7 immediately! This way those scumbags don’t get a penny!
Meanwhile, keep boycotting!!
June 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
This is going to backfire on them. The Big 4 think things are tough now?
Just wait
Cheers!
June 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
In fact, on reading Charlie D’s trial rundown today, it really does look like she did it and tried to cover it up by getting rid of the hard disc, but in a really pathetic amateurish way. A real shame.
80 grand. Where the fuck do they get that from?!
June 18th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I doubt that the plaintiffs will ever see the money. An individual simply does not have that kind of assets. And while the life of one individual is being utterly destroyed, file sharing continues worldwide without any signs of slowing down…
June 18th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Back To the appeals court. This is so full of holes, they should call it the swiss cheese verdict.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
” This is going to backfire on them. The Big 4 think things are tough now?
Just wait ”
I WAS of the position that just boycotting would do it.
I wasn’t fond of ‘groups’ out there putting the Mafia stuff out there, because it helped
make the Mafia arguments look valid.
Now I don’t care.
Now I think, go for it ‘groups’. put it out there as fast as you can get it, i’l do everything in my power to
make sure average Joe knows how and where to get it and how to cover their tracks.
I am sure that I am not going to be the only ‘Boycott only’ person to to say fuck them.
This IS a war, and this little ‘victory’ for the Mafia IS in fact going to backfire.
All I ask is for ‘Group’ members like surfer and others out there to at least TRY to make methods understandable
for the less technical, and easier to follow.
Just because they are not of the technical elite does not mean they ‘deserve’ this any more than Jammie does.
Mafia .. You’re wallets are going to get hurt.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
How much of that almost 2 mill do you really think they will collect???
The best the MAFIAAS can hope for is a payment set-up, and i can about bet
based on Jamies family income that it wont be alot per month! The flip side of this
whole POS is that the assclowns now have an official “win” to plaster all over the place
for thier intimidation campaign, do i believe the intimidation will work??
HELL NO, but its gonna be ugly out here for a while!!
And to quote surfer “unfuckingbelieveable”
continue to stw
June 18th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
This is even more ridiculous than the first trial. What excuse does that young hot-shot Harvard Law grad who was helping the defense have?
June 18th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
” This is even more ridiculous than the first trial. What excuse does that young hot-shot Harvard Law grad who was helping the defense have? ”
The judge allowed the RIAA to hobble the expert witness into uselessness, granted nearly every RIAA evidentiary
motions and denied similar defense motions and objections.
The RIAA was granted anything and everything they asked for.
Don’t blame the ‘hot-shot Harvard Law grad’.
Look at the judge. …. closely.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Hackers… do your work! Grab all the real data the proves they are crooks, look for sales data, financial data, contracts, etc… hack and then seed all the news networks with it all, relay through proxy after proxy, but get it there! They must be exposed!
And find the goods on the judge and jury members, guaranteed something has happened here! They threatened her, threatened to take away her kids or harm them, there’s no way she could just roll over. Something is severely wrong! We MUST find out what.
Make Jammie take a polygraph and get to the roots, find out what she was threatened with. Then make the judge take the polygraph test. If the judge is innocent there will be nothing to hide, isn’t that what the police love to say? If you are innocent you have nothing to fear, then he should have no problem being interrogated, along with the lawyers and jurors.
How do they figure 80k is fair? How stupid are they?
Ever sneak into a movie theatre? That’s $13 but as a jury we’ll fine you $50k. Yeah, that makes sense.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
lol 2-million dollars!
What a bunch of fuqtards.
Canada, This is what’s in store for you. Enjoy CRIA and their “funded” reports.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
“Working mother ordered to pay $1.92M for 24 songs”. RIAA, your campaign has just been exposed for the absurdity that it is. This is THE reductio ad absurdum against them.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
@Robert
believe me, this is spreading like wildfire in the underground..
there is 3 pieces of good news.
1) the RIAA will march this out as a victory, and have similiar results that spectrial did..
2) this will resolve ‘fence sitters’ and others that had no clue. once the RIAA broadcast this win to the lamescream media, it will only bolster anti semitism.
3) civil discourse in USA allows for appeal until the USSC. regardless of outcome.
tell everyone you know about this, even if they knew… spread the word… exciting public understanding is our only weapon right now, use it.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
oh, i forgot one angle that Ray Beckerman raised. This is super-evidence that damages are unconstitutional, and copyright needs review.
stw
June 18th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
This will have the same effect as the RIAA’s opening attack when it told the world about p2p file sharing.
It WILL disuade people – from buying Big 4 music.
Like Jon says use RIAA Radar if you are not sure who not to give your money to. And like surfer says “tell everyone you know about this, even if they knew… spread the word… exciting public understanding is our only weapon right now, use it.”
June 18th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I can only hope that Mr. Geist can use this as well, he is making incredible headway in Canada lately.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
“Once again, Judge Davis gave the RIAA everything they wanted.”
The entertainment parasites do not move to any trial without making sure that everything is properly rigged on their favor first. They was a perfect demonstartion of this in Sweeden with the pirate bay spectrial.
A warning to these parasites though: no justice no peace.
meanwhile Jammie don’t dare to give these criminals even one penny! Go Bk instead.
200k 2 million 200 billion 200 trillion? who care! It does not make any diference:
YOU SHALL NOT PAY!
We know who you are and we know on what side of the bar are the real criminals We will act accordingly.
Justice is about consensus and there is no consensus on this. This mean that basically they can take their rigged verdict and fuck themselves with it.
Please step aside. Someone else not as gentle will have to take over the fight from there.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
The judge must be investigated. So should be the jury.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
The judge isn’t in anyone’s pay. He’s just a lawyer who’s following the letter of the law, written by lawyers for lawyers.
If anyone is culpable, it’s the dying lamescream media who continue to parrot corporate music lies and half-truths as though the data are from credible and responsible sources. And that’s where most ordinary people — ie, jurors — get the bulk of their information.
The only way you’ll force the labels to pay attention is to keep on kicking them where it hurts — in their wallets. You won’t read about how much damage you’re doing to their revenue streams, but you can be 100% positive it’s heavy.
So don’t buy anything with their names, or their subsidiary names, on it. Tell your friends. And get them to tell their friends.
Sharing isn’t stealing. It’s sharing.
RIAA RADAR – http://www.riaaradar.com/
Do buy from indie sources, which is where the really good stuff is anyway.
Cheers!
June 18th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I hate to say this, but when I read the run down of the trial, I knew it was going to be bad. I mean come on! It really did look like she did it and tried to cover it up. But what really gets me is, she could have won the trial. or at least had a better defence.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
anyone interested in joining the underground. email me surferserials at gmail.com, dont bother if you are not on a mac, nothing personal, but i dont peecee.
there is a process in which trolls/shills are filtered out, and it is a legitimate calling, honestly Henri. I do not fear the recruiting process, I wrote the rules on how its done. this is topside, and Jon does not keep records for the site, and I spoof IPs to post, so that his ISP hosting the site has incorrect records as well. I host a bounce for the gmail email account I use, so they can never be traced. this is one of the benefits of the [Guild], a real community.
yes, Jon can get in alot of trouble being ‘associated’ with me, and neither of us care, we have taken the proper precautions. He and I understand how to use the internet for us, avoiding the asshats intent on devoiding us.
the MAFIAA are engaged in a game of checkers, when in actuality, we are playing chess.
stw
June 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Perhaps the RIAA will need all that money for their upcoming medical bills…
June 18th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
God this is sad
These people aren’t getting a penny
June 18th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Wow by using that math I would owe over $4,000,000,000. And yes I do have over 50k mp3s. Good thing I live in Canada.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
@Jay, 50 000 mp3?
I’ve never understood how people can go above a few thousand. I’m around 4k myself but many are from CD’s I own or cassettes. I am not searching indie stuff like I should. There’s bound to be a lot out there that’s good, though on myspace many are rap/rock/metal hybrids which isn’t my thing.
Anyhow, back on point, how the hell did you find 50 000 songs that you really like? I’m still limited to really only wanting 3 000, and even that is a stretch of songs I “need.”
June 18th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Good verdict. Seriously. Even you’ve got half of a brain, you cannot miss the fact that the verdict is blatantly absurd. This is a Pyhrric victory for the MAFIAA. They’ve gone really too far.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
@surfer, woulda emailed you brother, but i dont MAC…………guess i will do what i can from pee cee!!
stw
June 18th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Confused on this part:
JURY INSTRUCTION NO. 18
The act of downloading copyrighted sound recordings on a peer‐to‐peer
network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright
owners’ exclusive reproduction right.
Is this actually in the copyright law somewhere, or is this just something that the judge decided to tell the jurors?
June 19th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Seriously the big 4 should be on a terrorist watch-list. This verdict and the excessive damages are unAmerica
June 19th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I’d say it’s a near-certainty the judge will modify this verdict. If only to prevent the embarrassment of what appears to be a confused jury shrugging and picking an award at the middle of the statutory range, apparently without regard to what the range exists for (the circumstances of the case, the resources of its parties, etc.).
Also, remember what the McDonald’s spilled coffee case (regardless of its merits) did to the politics and popular opinions surrounding personal injury litigation? A large award like this one can frame the discussion in a similar light. No longer are copyright reformists’ warnings of $150,000 fines per file for home file sharing quite so alarmist; no longer are copyright owners’ reassurances that copyright law is fair and will be used as a gentle deterrence quite so convincing.
Besides, I’m a fan of irony. I wish things had turned out better for J.T.R., but failing that, there’s nothing quite as sinfully delicious as a verdict that’s too big for the RIAA’s own good.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:27 am
“This verdict and the excessive damages are unAmerica”
Because these parasites are not american. They should be arrested and deported.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:29 am
We don’t negotiate with terrorists, we kill them.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Honestly, I don’t know about Judge Davis following the letter of the law. It mostly seemed like he and the jury were being led like bulls with nose rings — the Mediasentry evidence was okayed, and let’s not forget that the reason for the new trial in the first place was because Judge Davis saw through the nonsense that was the RIAA’s making available theory; yet the RIAA did little more this time except for pointing the finger at her. Ars Technica hit the nail rather on the head — this jury was another bit of a bendover joke. We’ll soon see another series of jurors’ accounts of how they wanted to make an example of this unfortunate woman.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I dont listen to 90% of the music I have. Why I have it is more about bragging I have that much. I ran into someone last year that had over 120k songs. Mostly europop and techno that is played at his clubs around the world. I dont profit from anything Ive downloaded and I dont even own an ipod or other form of mp3 player except for cell phone. I dont have a cd player so there is no need to buy cds even thou I wouldnt because of the labels. Sometimes its just nice to want to listen to a certain song while you are on the computer.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
You could buy CD’s still and support the artists when they perform what they wrote. Check out Aimee Mann. Using the RIAARadar I found that Aimee Mann is “safe”. NIN’s new material is not only RIAA-free, it is CPL.
It sucks for the artists who are on big labels, like Joe Satriani, whom I wish I could buy his new album but I can’t support Sony/Epic (especially Sony with their DRM crap).
June 19th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I agree with what Jon’s saying about buying from indies. I’ve gotten a lot of albums from a site called vulpvibe.com, and frankly, Renard’s work is way better than any of the shit the RIAA’s benefactors have been putting out.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists, we kill them.”
Then why are any members of the RIAA still alive, again?
June 19th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
” The judge isn’t in anyone’s pay. He’s just a lawyer who’s following the letter of the law, written by lawyers for lawyers. ”
I doubt that.
One of his Jury instructions ONCE AGAIN is not rooted in any law.
Instruction 18
The act of downloading sound recordings on a per to peer network Without license from the copyright holders,
violates the copyright owners’ exclusive reproduction right.
this act is allowed by the AHRA for the purpose of personal, not for profit use, that is why the RIAA no longer sues for
downloading, they sue for distribution. Since she is being sued for distribution this does not belong here and is NOT
and agreed on defacto LAW.
Judge Davis’ instructions give the jury no choice but to find her guilty, if not of distribution, but of downloading, in a roundabout
way.
This error of law is less obvious than the one from the first trial and shows, not a desire to be just, but to still give the
RIAA the same result in a fashion better suited to cover judges davis’ ass.
No , the Judge is working in biased fashion with the well monied RIAA.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I have a question.
Did Jammie’s lawyer – or any of the lawyers – get to see the jury instructions prior to the jury getting them?
If not, then how can Judge Davis be so sure is giving them correct instructions and not making another “manifest error of law.”
June 19th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
She should’ve just stole 24 CDs from a store. The penalty for that wouldn’t have been as stiff.
Now how stupid is that?
June 19th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
a machine built on greed, ego and pride.
@surfer the MAFIAA are engaged in a game of checkers, when in actuality, we are playing chess.
nice
June 21st, 2009 at 9:03 am
The good news is that in the long run the chances of using absurd legal actions to sustain RIAA members’ stranglehold on distribution will inevitably fail. Their desperate action against Thomas-Rasset, like those of a cornered (paper) tiger, was a tacit acknowledgement of their future. Their “mission” to promote their member’s “creative and financial vitality” is a red herring. Their real mission is to protect the financial interests of distributors. Sorry to break the news to them but they might as well be trying to sell typewriters. Where is it written that a recording artist should make 100 times that of a teacher? Artistic creativity will survive the demise of RIAA. To the RIAA, if you are looking for people who share music files I stand up and say: “I am Spartigus.”
June 21st, 2009 at 9:13 am
Spartacus
June 28th, 2009 at 1:12 am
fucking ridiculous. I just feel so bad.
So yes, the multi billion dollar record companies are now only making 300 million a year instead of the 600 million they could.
meanwhile your average joe who makes 30k a year, is saving like 500 dollars on songs. BIG FUCKING WHOOP! such bullshit.