Jamie Thomas is the
single mother of two who lost a copyright infringement lawsuit earlier this
month to the music industry. The $222,000
damage award represents $9,250 for each of 24 recordings Ms. Thomas allegedly
placed on Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file sharing network on which millions of users
exchange unauthorized copies of recordings.
appeal the judgment based on the argument that merely placing the recordings on
Kazaa and making them available for download is insufficient for copyright
infringement liability. She will argue
that in order to win the lawsuit, the music industry should have been obligated
to prove her actions resulted in a distribution of those recordings which would
only occur if people actually downloaded the recordings placed on the network.
There are legal arguments on both sides and it will be interesting to see how the
appeals court rules on the question of whether “making available” is equivalent
to “distribution”.
elements of this case that intrigue me.