On Oct. 4, 2007, a federal court jury ordered a Minnesota woman to pay $222,000.00 for copyright infringement stemming from sharing music files over the internet.
Jammie Thomas was been sued by six record companies including Capitol, Sony and Warner Brothers, who were awarded cumulative damages of $9,250.00 for each of the 24 songs the defendant illegally shared.
Thomas testified during the trial that she had never had an account with online file sharing service Kazaa, and had not shared the songs in question.
The RIAA hopes that this and 20,000 other pending cases serve as a deterrent to would-be file-sharers. However, the music industry may create such hostility and bad press with its campaign that it outweighs any short-term benefits.
It is not clear how many people may have downloaded copies of these songs from Thomas. The total cost of these songs, were they downloaded legally, is about 24 dollars.
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