Jammie Thomas file sharing verdict overturned
A US judge has ordered a retrial in the civil case that saw Minnesota woman Jammie Thomas slugged with a damages bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged copyright infringement via peer-to-peer filesharing.
Almost a year ago, a jury found in favour of record companies that had alleged Jammie Thomas had made 24 songs available for copying over the Internet via Kazaa, and awarded damages of $US222,000.
It was the first file sharing case to reach the US federal courts, as many accused people had chosen to settle for a relatively small amount. At the time, lawyer Ray Beckerman, who is associated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, described the jury verdict as "one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law" and suggested the judge may set aside the verdict.
