File-sharer to appeal huge fine

A woman convicted of file-sharing and ordered to pay a $220,000 (about £110,000) fine is to appeal the verdict.

Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old woman from Minnesota was last week ordered to pay the massive fine for sharing music tracks over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks after a legal action brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

However, in a posting on her blog, Ms Thomas has protested her innocence and stated her intention to appeal against the fine.

"I can honestly say I do not advocate theft. I will also say that I have never used P2P software to download or upload music. That was why I refused to settle with the music labels. I did not do what they had accused me of and I was not going to pay them for someone else's actions," she wrote.

The appeal will centre around the prosecution's failure to prove that anyone actually downloaded the tracks owned by Ms Thomas.

Like previous cases brought by the RIAA, the cased revolved around the fact that the music has been "made available" to download, but didn't ascertain whether or not they had been downloaded.

The appeal, if successful, will therefore set a legal precedent and may mean that previous cases are re-examined.

The fine was criticised by one digital music analyst, who said it was "out of proportion".

"I understand why the RIAA pushed for such a large fine: they wanted to establish a deterrent for other defendants who might wish to challenge the fines. But the fine is out of proportion with the act," said Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research.

Ms Thomas called the fine "ridiculous" and thanked other surfers for their offers to donate money to help pay the fine.

"There are more options available my attorney is currently seeking out before I am stuck with this ridiculous bill from the RIAA," she wrote on her blog.

The International Federation of the Phongraphic Industry (IFPI), another body that looks after the rights of recording companies and artists worldwide, expressed its regret that the case had come to court at all.

"We have always made it clear we are reluctant litigators. We do everything possible to persuade people not to leave themselves exposed to litigation. We educate, we warn, we even try and settle before a case gets to court. We derive no great satisfaction from this but hope it will prove a deterrent to others. Our message is: we don't want to litigate - don't leave yourself exposed to litigation," said John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI.

www.freejammie.com
www.riia.com
www.jupiterresearch.com
www.ifpi.org

More news via RSS Post item to Del.icio.us Post item to Digg.com