Woman Ordered To Pay The RIAA $1.9 Mil In File Sharing Lawsuit

In the first file-sharing case ever to go to trial in the U.S., a Minnesota mother of four was ordered to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $1.9 million dollars yesterday (June 18) for violating music copyright laws.

According to the Associated Press, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was targeted for sharing 24 songs on the peer-to-peer network Kazaa. She will have to pay roughly $80,000 for each track to the four major labels, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI Group and Sony Music Entertainment. The RIAA was reportedly seeking $3.6 million in damages.

This is the second time this case has gone to trial. In 2007 she escaped having to pay $220,000 in the same case after the judge made mistakes when giving instructions to the jurors.

While the RIAA has filed more than 30,000 file sharing suits, this is the first case that actually sat in front of a jury. Most other case settled out of court for an average of $3,500.

There's no way they're ever going to get that," Thomas-Rasset told the Associated Press of the $1.9 ruling. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."

Rolling Stone reports that Thomas’ lawyer Kiwi Camara is looking to find a settlement with the RIAA . - Elan Mancini