The Recording Industry Association Of America's litigation campaign against individuals who share music via P2P is about to enter into a new phase with the first jury trial relating to file sharing about to begin in the US.
As previously reported, the RIAA's whole litigation campaign has been structured to make it much easier for those accused of file sharing to accept liability and pay a fine than fight allegations against them. That, combined with the fact the majority of people targeted are probably genuinely guilty of file sharing, means most alleged file sharers have quickly settled out of court.
But a handful of those targeted have defended themselves through the courts, often successfully. A number of those cases have been quite high profile, especially in the States, and some expect the jury trial case involving one Jammie Thomas to be especially so.
She is accused illegally swapping 1702 songs via Kazaa, but claims she did no such thing. She has decided to defend herself despite the risk that losing the case could cost up to an estimated $4 million. The case will rest on the reliability of the RIAA's evidence against Thomas - something that could set legal precedents about the way the industry body can or cannot prove file sharing has taken place.
The case begins today.
PS: The case is called Virgin v Thomas, because these cases are normally named for one of the record companies the RIAA represents. Should it all get nasty, it will be interesting to see what the Virgin Group think about EMI's Virgin Records pursuing a tricky case using their name.