RIAA says its lawsuits are costing it millions and are enormous money losers.
Jammie Thomas, whom the RIAA has accused of illegal file-sharing, testified in federal court Wednesday that she didn’t do it, though she acknowledged giving conflicting dates for the replacement of her PC’s HDD.
Thomas said before the trial, which began Tuesday, that her HDD was replaced in 2004, but she agreed Wednesday that it was actually replaced on March 9, 2005. The disparity is important because the companies say she received an IM on Feb. 21, 2005, warning her that she was violating copyright law by sharing songs online via the KaZaA file-sharing network.
The RIAA claims that she replaced her HDD to cover her tracks—not to rectify persistent problems, as she claims. SHe defended giving the erroneous date by saying she had been confused about several of the dates in question due to the fact that it occurred so long ago.
She testified under questioning from record company lawyer Richard Gabriel that while pursuing a college degree in marketing, she did a case study on the original Napster file-sharing program and concluded that it was not illegal. A judge ruled in 2001 that it was.
She acknowledged she listened to, or owned CDs released by, more than 60 of the artists whose music was in the Kazaa file-sharing folder at the heart of the case. Thomas denied the folder was hers. The RIAA accuses her of sharing 1,702 songs illegally online. It also claims that it found the songs on a Kazaa file-sharing account they later linked to her.
“Did you ever have Kazaa on your computer?” Thomas’ attorney, Brian Toder, asked her.
“No,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Thomas set up her PC in court to show the jury how quickly CDs could be copied onto it. That demonstration came in response to testimony from an RIAA expert, Doug Jacobson, who said the songs on one of Thomas’ computer drives were copied at a pace so fast it suggested piracy. Many appeared just 15 seconds apart, which Jacobson claimed was faster than Thomas could have copied songs from CDs she owned onto the computer. But, each song Thomas copied in court over Gabriel’s objection took less than 10 seconds to land on the computer. Jacobson said the comparison might not be valid because the version of Windows Media Player that Thomas used to rip the CDs in court was different from what was available in February 2005, when the files in contention landed her hard drive.
A worker from Best Buy Co.’s Geek Squad service testified that Thomas’ hard drive was replaced under an extended warranty plan in 2005 that would generally have required her approval. But under cross- examination by Toder, the worker said he didn’t have a record of her approving the replacement.
During cross-examinations of record company witnesses, Toder has raised doubts that the companies can prove it was Thomas who downloaded and shared the 1,702 songs.
The RIAA said record companies have brought more than 26,000 actions against people they allege shared files online in violation of copyrights. Most defendants have settled by paying a few thousand dollars.
The record companies have not specified how much they are seeking in damages. But on Wednesday, RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said they would be asking for damages on the 24 songs that the trial is focused on, not the 1,702 that were described in the lawsuit. Copyright law allows damages of $750 to $30,000 per infringement, or up to $150,000 if the violation was “willful.” That means Thomas, who works for the Department of Natural Resources of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, could face a judgment of anywhere from $18,000 to $3.6 million for the 24 songs.
After two days of testimony from 11 witnesses, the defense rested without calling anyone to the stand, and closing arguments in the civil trial were scheduled for Thursday morning.
The case threatens to become another PR disaster for record companies. After they were initially accused of refusing to offer a legitimate alternative to file-sharing, the companies are now being attacked for the way they price such music. Their practices have prompted an investigation by the European Commission and alienated many big-selling bands. Next week Radiohead will release its new album independently and allow fans to decide how to much to pay for it online, through an “honesty box” system.
What’s also interesting to note is how big a money loser the “sue till were blue” program has been. They’ve sued more than 26,000 and essentially lost money on cost of litigation versus settlement recouped. When you factor in all the people they’ve pissed off and thus business lost, calling it a “money pit” is putting it mildly. Imagine if they’d put all that energy and resources in embracing technology rather than dragging out the whole affair like a bad breakup.
I hate to tell you this RIAA but the record stores are gone for good and they’re not coming back!
From Ars Technica:
The next line of questioning was how many suits the RIAA has filed so far. Pariser estimated the number at a “few thousand.” “More like 20,000,” suggested Toder. “That’s probably an overstatement,” Pariser replied. She then made perhaps the most startling comment of the day. Saying that the record labels have spent “millions” on the lawsuits, she then said that “we’ve lost money on this program.”
The RIAA’s settlement amounts are typically in the neighborhood of $3,000-$4,000 for those who settle once they receive a letter from the music industry. On the other side of the balance sheet is the amount of money paid to SafeNet (formerly MediaSentry) to conduct its investigations, and the cash spent on the RIAA’s legal team and on local counsel to help with the various cases. As Pariser admitted under oath today, the entire campaign is a money pit.
Today is the final day of the trial, so stay tuned to find out what happens next and keep your fingers crossed that Jammie Thomas comes out on top.
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