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De­fend­ant in first RI­AA mu­sic-down­load­ing case to go to tri­al en­gages CS as tri­al coun­sel

May 18, 2009

Ca­mara & Sib­ley today agreed to take over as tri­al coun­sel for Jam­mie Thomas in Cap­it­ol Re­cords et al. v. Thomas. Jam­mie stands ac­cused by the Re­cord­ing In­dustry As­so­ci­ation of Amer­ica of il­leg­ally down­load­ing and shar­ing mu­sic over the In­ter­net. Her case is set for re­tri­al in the United States Dis­trict Court for the Dis­trict of Min­nesota, be­gin­ning June 15. It will be the first of the RI­AA’s more than 30,000 pro­sec­u­tions to go to tri­al. The RI­AA is seek­ing $3,600,000 in dam­ages — $150,000 per song for the 24 songs that Jam­mie al­legedly down­loaded.

Jam­mie’s case is part of the RI­AA’s lit­ig­a­tion cam­paign against those who down­load mu­sic on­line. The RI­AA’s mem­bers — com­pan­ies like Vir­gin Re­cords, Cap­it­ol Re­cords, Sony BMG, Ar­isa Re­cords, Warner Bros. Re­cords, and UMG Re­cord­ings, the plaintiffs who are su­ing Jam­mie — have sent de­mand let­ters and filed cases against more than 30,000 de­fend­ants around the coun­try.

In each of these cases, the RI­AA threatens ex­pens­ive and pro­trac­ted fed­er­al lit­ig­a­tion with the pos­sib­il­ity of a ru­in­ous $1,000,000+ judgent at the end in or­der to ex­tract set­tle­ments of between $4,000 and $12,000 per de­fend­ant. Every de­fend­ant un­til Jam­mie has settled. Her case will be the first in which the RI­AA’s lit­ig­a­tion strategy comes be­fore a jury.

K.A.D. Ca­mara and Joe Sib­ley will serve as lead tri­al coun­sel. Read more about the firm’s lit­ig­a­tion strategy at Ars Tech­nica.