By Nick Farrell
30 December 2008, 10:57

THE ONLY successful Recording Industry Association of America conviction against a file-sharer will go to retrial despite the music industry's best efforts. The RIAA appealed an earlier decision to grant a retrial of the copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas.

A jury found Jammie Thomas guilty of copyright infringement by illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs and said that she needed to pay $220,000 to six of the top music labels. However the Judge in charge of the chase US District Judge Michael Davis ordered a retrial after he found that he misguided the jury by telling them that the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. He ordered a new trial for March. But the RIAA really does not want another trial, particularly if the Judge is going to tell the jury that making a copyrighted file available is not infringement.

The RIAA has already admitted that proving that songs have been downloaded from services like Kazaa is nearly impossible. The music industry stands to lose countless cases if it loses this particularly high profile one. So the RIAA appealed the judge's decision to declare a mistrial. Unfortunately, Davis just chucked it out without commenting.