RIAA Appeal Turned Down; Will They Retry Jammie Thomas?

Will It Takes Its Ball Back To Court?

Federal judge MICHAEL DAVIS has refused the RIAA's appeal of his decision to vacate the verdict against JAMMIE THOMAS for illegal file sharing, which will necessitate a retrial. Meanwhile, lawyer/anti-RIAA activist RAY BECKERMAN has released transcripts of the original trial on his website.

According to ARS TECHNICA, DAVIS threw out the verdict and its over $200,000 penalty because of a flawed jury instruction. He told jurors that simply merely "making available" files for download on P2P networks could count as infringement, when the Eighth Circuit law ruled that an "actual distribution" would have to take place to be considered infringement.

The RIAA has earlier said it plans to go through with a retrial, but that was before it decided to abandon its litigation strategy in the future, in favor of a "graduated response," where ISPs would ostensibly notify and possibly terminate Net access from suspected illegal file sharers.

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