Jury Gives RIAA a Bailout

If there is anything that shows just how bad the jury system in America has gotten we have the case of Jammie Thomas who was just ordered by a jury to pay $1.92 million for "sharing" 24 songs on Kazaa.

Yes, there is more than the simple filesharing, There is the swapped HD. But seriously. This is a case of awards being far in excess of actual damages. And yes, we understand that there's willful infringement and penalties, but $1.92 for something that's not even class action?

Look each song is worth at most 99 cents at the time she had them. She would have to share each song 750 times just to make the minimum statutory damages. That's 18,000 shares. Just to meet the minimum. At best the MediaSentry program that the RIAA used to catch Jammie found 1 instance of sharing. One. Everything after that is speculation since there is no evidence to show how long she had been sharing the file or how many people actually "stole" the material from her.

Look I think she's guilty of file sharing. No doubt. But no way no how am I voting for an award so out of proportion to the actual damages. I understand that there is a desire to use judgments to deter other file sharing. No problem. at $750 a track the award would have been $18,000. That's the cost of a Kia. The average American faced with such a sudden debt would be seriously hurt by such an award. In fact for the average black person in America, that could actually bankrupt them.

I hope that none of these jury members find themselves in this position due to some behavior like say, smoking, that they had clear control over. Then they will now how it feels to be dicked by a small committee.