Well, that all happened faster than I was expecting. The Recording Industry Association Of America have scored a quick win in the first P2P court case to go before a jury.
As previously reported, American single mother Jammie Thomas was accused of swapping 1702 songs via Kazaa in early 2005. She was one of the few targeted by the RIAA's anti-P2P litigation to actually decide to mount a defence, denying she had ever illegally shared music online.
Her defence questioned the reliability of the techniques the RIAA use for spying on individuals who share music online. Had the high profile jury trial relating to the case found against the record industry trade body it would have been both a legal and PR blow, because it would have publicly questioned the procedure with which the association has targeted thousands of other filesharers.
But that hasn't happened, because the twelve jurors quickly decided unanimously that Thomas was, in fact, guilty of file sharing. She was ordered to pay the labels $9025 for each of the 24 recordings specifically named in the lawsuit, bringing Thomas' fine to $222,000, considerably more than if she had settled with the record companies out of court.
Welcoming the ruling, a spokesman for the RIAA told reporters yesterday: "We welcome the jury's decision. The law here is clear, as are the consequences for breaking it. As with all our cases, we seek to resolve them quickly in a fair and reasonable manner. When the evidence is clear, we will continue to bring legal actions against those individuals who have broken the law. This programme is important to securing a level playing field for legal online music services and helping ensure that record companies are able to invest in new bands of tomorrow".