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Music Labels Win $2 Million in Web Case
19 June 2009

Music Labels Win $2 Million in Web Case

The Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi, and other record labels were awarded $1.92 million on Thursday in the retrial of a Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service.

The federal jury in Minneapolis said the woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them.

The first time the case went to trial, in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 a song, or $222,000.

The Recording Industry Association of America brought more than 35,000 legal actions against people it claimed were illegally sharing music before changing its policy in December. This is the only case that has gone to trial.

Judge Michael J. Davis of United States District Court threw out the first verdict, saying he had given the jury incorrect instructions.

After the verdict, Ms. Thomas-Rasset, a natural resources coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe, said she was disappointed that she had not been able to convince the jury that she had not posted the songs. “The only thing I can say is good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip.”

Her lawyer, Kiwi Camara of Camara & Sibley in Houston, said Ms. Thomas-Rasset might appeal the verdict, or try to negotiate a settlement.

“The disproportionate size of the verdict raises constitutional questions,” said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer with the consumer group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has criticized the music industry’s tactics.

At the four-day trial, lawyers for Ms. Thomas-Rasset argued that the labels could not prove that she had posted the songs on the Kazaa file-sharing site.

In addition to Universal, labels in the case are owned by the EMI Group, part of Terra Firma Capital Partners; the Warner Music Group; and Sony Music Entertainment.

 
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