Judge: RIAA appeal in file sharing case refused

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)’s appeal in the Jammie Thomas case has been denied, which could bring the long legal case to a rather anticlimactic end.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis originally threw out the verdict a few weeks after a jury found her guilty of copyright infringement when she was offering more than 1,700 songs in her shared folder.  The jury ultimately forced Thomas to pay up to $220,000 to the record labels, though that ruling was thrown out by Judge Davis.

The RIAA tried to convince the court that simply offering a copyrighted music song in a shared folder — where people could have potentially downloaded the track — was the same as copyright infringement.  The judge took a second look at the case and decided that simply offering the tracks simply isn’t enough evidence of copyright infringement.

Rather than take Thomas to trial again, the RIAA’s lawyers hoped the case would be ruled a mistrial.

This case has been exciting to watch unfold, as Thomas remains the only person actually charged with copyright infringement by the RIAA.  The U.S. music trade group has filed more than 25,000 John Doe lawsuits across the country against alleged fiile sharers, with most people electing to pay a fine any where from $2,000 up to $8,000.

As the RIAA prepares to transition away from invidiual lawsuits more towards forcing ISPs to police their users, this could be the only time the RIAA actually brings someone to court over alleged copyright infringement.