After having successfully forced tens of thousands to settle, we finally get to see somebody have their day in court.
Jammie Thomas, a Native American single mother of two from central Minnesota, refused to settle for $3,000, and now faces a potential liability of up to $3.9 million. Jammie Thomas is accused of illegally sharing 1,702 songs over the KaZaA network stemming from when her shared folder was discovered by SafeNet Inc. in February 2005.
Thomas’ lawyers are fighting hard to clear her of accusations of violating copyrights. In fact, their main argument is that the RIAA submitted a document that declared the copyrights belong to companies that are not listed as the copyright holder. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael J. Davis threw out over 700 pages of documents that the record companies submitted to prove that they owned the copyrights to the songs in question. Thomas’ lawyers argued that the documents were too little, too late.
Normally, people buckle under the pressure of being sued out of existence but Thomas refused to back down to the RIAA.
“She came into my office and was willing to pay a retainer of pretty much what they wanted to settle for,” said Brian Toder, Thomas’ attorney for the case. “And if someone’s willing to pay a lawyer rather than pay to make it go away, that says a lot.”
Jury selection begins today and open arguments are expected as well. So sit back, grab your popcorn, and watch in anticipation as this one plays out in court. If Thomas wins, then this could spark a revolutionary movement from those that have yet to settle with the RIAA. However, if the RIAA wins then it will surely be business as usual and we can probably expect a massive surge in the amount of pre-suit letters being sent out.
Recording Industry vs The People is maintaining extensive coverage of the trial which you can follow HERE.
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This will be a good case to watch I’m going to keep my eyes on it.
From Afterdawn…..”Piracy is a tremendous problem affecting the music industry” said the first witness Jennifer Pariser head of litigation and anti-piracy for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. “It has caused billions of dollars in harm in the past four or five years.” Much of the first day discussion addressed fair use. Richard Gabriel lead counsel for the record labels questioned Pariser about consumers making just one copy of a music track they own for themselves.
“When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself I suppose we can say he stole a song” Parsier said adding that making a copy of one purchased song is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy.” Most music stored on MP3 players doesn’t come from legal downloads but other sources including ripping tracks from personal CD collections and indeed software like iTunes possesses the ability to do so. ”
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/11331.cfm
So NOW we know that SONY thinks that “fair use” is not supposed to be used! What a bunch of idiots! I am glad they said this during a public trial as now they cannot go back on their words.
I hope that the judge sees them wanting to take away consumers rights. That was just stupid on Sony’s part.
I view this with trepidation because it could end up being all or nothing in favor of the RIAA. History(including the present time)is full of evil deeds unfairness and action/concepts that are just plain ‘wrong’ yet officially labled “legal” and the consequences for oridnary people are mind spectacularly cruel and despicable. I do not trust that a judge will necessarily adjudicate fairly.
A judge is nothing more than a ‘chumped’ up lawyer. Roberto Gonzalez is lawyer and look how he handled things. The judges of of the US Supreme Court were first lawyers and look how they have affected the everyday lives of people in the US. I do not trust in the current politcal and increaslingly restricted atmosphere regarding American civil liberties that this necessarily good timing for this particular battle.
“I do not trust in the current politcal and increaslingly restricted atmosphere regarding American civil liberties that this necessarily good timing for this particular battle.”
Well storm ninja….in 2008 America will have a new president and be rid of Bush….but I wonder…will an even new president be able to get America out of the mess Bush and his cronies got it into?