The record companies scored a win yesterday in the first jury trial in a music file-sharing lawsuit, although in the end it's a pyrrhic victory. In the case of Capitol Records v. Thomas, the jury found that single mom Jammie Thomas of Brainerd, MN was liable for copyright infringement for sharing music on the P2P Kazaa network.
The jury awarded $9,250 in statutory damages for each of 24 songs at issue in the case, resulting in a grand total of $222,000 in damages. Although it's hard to tell based on the press reports, it sounds like Thomas didn't serve her own case very well, giving conflicting answers during the trial about key questions related to whether or not she personally downloaded the songs or whether, as she contends, somebody else used her computer to access Kazaa.
But whether Thomas or somebody else actually did the deeds, the bigger question is: how idiotic is it for Capitol Records or the RIAA or any record company to go to such lengths to nail a file-sharer, particularly an undoubtedly financially strapped single mother? Capitol Records and the RIAA probably incurred seven-figure legal bills in litigating this matter.
And, although the Copyright Act permits the winner in infringement cases to seek attorney's fees from the loser, it's doubtful that Capitol Records would ever be able to collect that money from Thomas, even if the court did grant it that remedy. It's probably not even likely that Capitol Records will even be able to collect the $222,000 in damages awarded by the jury.
The RIAA hopes that this ruling serves as an object lesson to others who are caught by the recording industry's efforts to penalize people who download and share unauthorized music. "The law here is clear, as are the consequences for breaking it," the RIAA said in a statement.
It's likely, however, that nothing will change. People will continue to share music online anyway and virtually every person caught in the record industry's campaign to track down and sue file-sharers settles anyway, typically at the cost of around $4,000 per person. This victory won't, therefore, even have the advantage of forcing more people to settle the lawsuits.
As EFF notes in its reaction to this decision:
But despite today's verdict, tens of millions of Americans will continue sharing billions of songs, just as they have since Napster let the P2P genie out of the bottle nearly 8 years ago. Every lawsuit makes the recording industry look more and more like King Canute, vainly trying to hold back the tide
The King Canute that EFF cites, as Wikipedia explains, was a Viking who seemingly ruled a crazy quilt chunk of Europe, including England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden and what is now Germany sometime around 1000 to 1035. Canute put his throne on the beach and commanded the tide to stay back in an effort to prove that even a king couldn't rule the seas.
Sooner or later, and sooner, I think, the record industry will get tired of seeking out and suing music fans. The victory today wasn't a loss leader for the record industry. It was merely a loss, at least financially, and the mounting costs of stupid litigation can only speed the day when the record companies give up and realize that just as Canute couldn't hold back the ocean's tide, they can't control the unauthorized digital distribution of music.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:12 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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