One Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas-Rasset is getting a second chance after a guilty ruling said she had to pay $220,000 in damages to the RIAA. The old ruling was thrown out when judge Michael Davis decided he had “erred in telling jurors the companies didn’t have to prove anyone downloaded the copyright-protected songs she allegedly made available.” And Ms. Thomas-Rasset’s new attorney decided to challenge the RIAA lawyers to provide documentation that the music labels in question actually have rights to the songs they are suing for. Apparently, the RIAA has never provided proper evidence in court before.
The point of the law is that it protects people from those more powerful, whether the other party has power from a gun or power from copious amounts of cash; the RIAA embodies the latter case. No one should have enough influence that they can bully people into giving them money, which is exactly what the music labels have done: over $100 million in settlement money. The fact that defending a client by saying the prosecution needs to actually show some evidence is a novel mechanism is disheartening to say the least. When stuff like this comes to light, it makes us very grateful for the work of people like Charles Nesson.
