DULUTH, Minnesota – Threat Level is here outside U.S. District Judge Michael Davis' courtroom ahead of a scheduled 10 a.m. central time hearing in the Jammie Thomas file sharing case.

Ten months ago to the day, a federal jury here dinged the Minnesota woman $222,000 for making 24 copyrighted songs available on the Kazaa network. But Davis, on his own motion, called the Recording Industry Association of America and lawyers for Thomas back here to his courtroom for Monday's hearing.

He wants to hear arguments on whether to declare a mistrial for an instruction he read to the jury. He told jurors that the young mother of two was liable for copyright infringement if she was "making copyrighted sound recordings available" over a peer-to-peer network "regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."

Law professors and digital rights groups have lined up on Thomas' side, saying the under the Copyright Act the RIAA must prove that someone downloaded the tracks under the Copyright Act. There's no such thing as implied, or attempted copyright infringement, they said.

The RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America have told the judge that it's impossible to know whether others had downloaded copyrighted music from Thomas' Kazaa share folder.

Threat Level will provide news of developments as quickly as possible. It is not known whether the judge will rule Monday.

The judge does not allow computers in his courtroom.

Jammie Thomas was the first, and so-far only, defendant in an RIAA peer-to-peer lawsuit to go to trial.

Here is the complete story and background.

Photo Mermadon

See Also: