Record labels might fear victory in file sharing trial

Record labels have sued more than 26,000 people for copyright infringement over file sharing. The most common outcome is settlement. Knowing a bargain when they see on, big-time infringers are happy to accept settlement offers. And casual music file traders don't have the money to fight the labels in court.

Now for the first time, a defendant is squaring off against the industry at trial. Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two from Northern Minnesota, could be slapped with a multi-million dollar penalty if a jury convicts her of distributing 1,702 songs over a file sharing network in 2003.

Record labels have continued pursuing their controversial legal strategy of suing individuals despite the strong negative publicity it brings. Faced with a sharp and sustained decline in the sale of CDs, the industry feels it has no choice.

But I'm curious how a victory over Jammie Thomas would be perceived. She seems like a sympathetic defendant. What good could come from a victory over the mother of two who continues to deny she did nothing wrong? Thomas' lawyer says his client couldn't possibly pay a multi-million dollar fine, so any judgment against her is symbolic. Is that the kind of symbolism the record labels want to project?

Journalist Jon Healey, who's long covered the battle between file sharers and record labels, made this point well in a conversation I had with him today. Here is a transcript of that portion of our discussion:

"I just wonder whether, because the potential damages are so high, if it helps the RIAA's cause at all to win? Because they may end up getting a jury to say to this 30-year-old single mother, you're going to have to pay these guys 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars. And that's just the minimum that might be at issue here. That's a tone of money for sharing files. What is the public's reaction going to be to that? Is it going to be, 'Well, she deserved it, you did the crime you do the time' ... or are they going to say, 'This is completely out of whack, penalties are far out of proportion for what she was doing,' and pressure Congress to change copyright law so those penalties come down?"

i guess it might stop people from downloading music.