RIAA loses mistrial appeal in Thomas case

A federal judge has denied the RIAA’s request to grant a retrial in its copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas. Earlier this year a jury found Jammie Thomas guilty of illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs. Thomas had to pay $220,000 in damages to six of the top music labels. But a few weeks later the presiding Judge Michael Davis had a change of heart and threw out the verdict. His reason for declaring a mistrial were that he had misguided the jury by telling them that making a copyrighted song available for sharing equals copyright infringement, while in in his opinion the law requires a song to be actually downloaded.

The RIAA appealed the judge\'s decision to declare a mistrial, but this appeal has now been denied. A new trial has been rescheduled for March 2009. The main legal question  to be answered during this trial will be whether the RIAA actually needs to prove that a song has been downloaded, something that according to the RIAA is very difficult, if not impossible.