Juror's response from the RIAA 222k lawsuit

["Dude VanWinkle" <dudevanwinkle () gmail com>]

"We wanted to send a message" Give me a break..

from: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/riaa-juror-we-w.html

RIAA Juror: 'We Wanted to Send a Message'

 It took the jury in Capitol Records v. Thomas only five minutes to
conclude 30-year-old Jammie Thomas infringed recording industry
copyrights on 24 music tracks, according to the first juror to speak
out on the verdict.

The remaining five hours of deliberation was spent debating the
appropriate financial penalty, with jurors haggling for both higher
and lower awards, before settling last week on the final $222,000
figure, according to juror Michael Hegg, in an exclusive interview
with THREAT LEVEL Tuesday.

At least two jurors, one of them a funeral home owner, wanted to award
the Recording Industry Association of America the maximum $150,000 for
each of the 24 copyright violations, while one juror held out hours
for the $750 minimum for each violation of the Copyright Act, he said.

In the end, "after bickering," they settled on $9,250 for each song.

"That is a compromise, yes," said Hegg, a 38-year-old steelworker from
Duluth, Minnesota. "We wanted to send a message that you don't do
this, that you have been warned."

During a 45-minute telephone interview, Hegg said jurors found that
Thomas' defense -- that she was the victim of a spoof -- was
unbelievable.

"She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars,"
Hegg said. "Spoofing? We're thinking, 'Oh my God, you got to be
kidding.' "

"She's a liar," added Hegg, who just returned home following his
14-hour night shift.

Thomas is among 20,000 people the RIAA has sued, and was the first to
go to trial.

Thomas and her attorney have announced they're appealing the verdict,
in part to contest a jury instruction that said Thomas could be found
liable solely for sharing the music over the Kazaa file-sharing
network, "regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."

But Hegg said the jury in U.S. District Court in Duluth would have
found her liable even if the plaintiffs had been required to establish
that Kazaa users had actually downloaded the music.

"It would have been a lot harder to make the decision," he said. "Yes,
we would have reached the same result."

He said the RIAA established that Kazaa existed for the sole purpose
of file sharing. Also, a screen shot repeatedly displayed to jurors
during the three-day case showed that more than 2 million people were
on Kazaa sharing hundreds of millions of songs on Feb. 21, 2005, the
night RIAA investigators from Safenet locked on to Thomas' share
folder.

Hegg added that the jury believed Thomas' liability was magnified
because she turned over to RIAA investigators a different hard drive
than the one used to share music. "She lied," he said. "There was no
defense. Her defense sucked."

Hegg, a married father of two who said he formerly raced snowmobiles,
said he has never been on the internet. He said his wife is an
administrator at a local hospital and an "internet guru."

The jury, he said, was convinced that Thomas was a pirate after
hearing evidence that the Kazaa account RIAA investigators were
monitoring matched Thomas' internet protocol and modem addresses.

Expert testimony from an RIAA witness also showed that a wireless
router was not used, casting doubt on her defense that a hacker
lurking outside her apartment window with a laptop might have framed
her, he said.

Hegg pointed out that Thomas' Kazaa account username was "Tereastarr"
-- the same username Thomas chose for her e-mail, online shopping,
online dating and MySpace accounts.

"I think she thought a jury from Duluth would be naïve. We're not that
stupid up here," he said. "I don't know what the fuck she was
thinking, to tell you the truth."

See Also: THREAT LEVEL'S Complete Trial and Post-Trial Coverage

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