24 Illegal Song Downloads Cost U.S. Woman 220,000 Dollars

October 4, 2007

The Associated Press reports that a single mother who was accused of illegally downloading tracks from OPETH and GUNS N' ROSES (among other artists) has been ordered to pay $220,000 in damages after a federal jury ruled she shared copyrighted music online

The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all. Thomas and her attorney, Brian Toder, declined comment as they left the courthouse.

In the first such lawsuit to go to trial, the record companies accused Thomas of downloading the songs without permission and offering them online through a Kazaa file-sharing account. Thomas denied wrongdoing and testified that she didn't have a Kazaa account.

Record companies have filed some 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 over file-sharing, which has hurt sales because it allows people to get music for free instead of paying for recordings in stores. Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars.

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