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Landmark File Sharing Decision Released: Jury Orders $222,000 in Statutory Damages
A 30 year old Minnesota mother of two earning $36,000 a year, was recently ordered to pay $222,000 in damages to the recording industry. She had posted around 1,700 songs on Kazaa, and the record industry was able to trace her identity through her IP address.
The action was one of a series of actions initiated against persons sharing music files online. While the majority of these actions settled out of court, this is the first action to have proceeded to trial. Rather than attempt to prove actual damages, the recording industry elected to pursue statutory damages. An enhanced scale of damages is available in cases of wilful copyright infringement under American law, and the jury was charged to consider the wilfulness in this case.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the decision was that the presiding judge ruled the plaintiffs’ case could be proven without evidence that the posted songs were, in fact, downloaded. The mere act of making the music available online gave rise to liability. This ruling confronts one of the key tensions in the law of evidence; when should the onus of proof on a given issue shift. While on its face this decision may appear unreasonable, it recognizes that evidence speaking to this issue is far more available to a defendant. One would think that any available exculpatory evidence would be readily produced. Therefore, a presumption that such evidence is unfavourable is arguably a more sound basis for the ruling than the fact that the songs have been “made available”.
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