DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota woman, who record companies say illegally shared music online, testified in federal court Wednesday that she didn't do it, though she acknowledged giving conflicting dates for the replacement of her computer hard drive.
Six major record companies accuse Jammie Thomas, 30, of sharing 1,702 songs online in violation of the companies' copyrights. The record companies claim they found the songs on a Kazaa file-sharing account they later linked to her.
Thomas's is the first trial in 26,000 similar cases brought by record companies against individuals across the country. Many other defendants ended the cases against them by paying the record companies a settlement.
Thomas said before the trial, which began Tuesday, that her hard drive was replaced in 2004, but she agreed Wednesday that it actually was replaced on March 9, 2005.
The disparity is important because the companies say she received an instant message on Feb. 21, 2005, warning her that she was violating copyright law by sharing songs online.
The companies say she replaced the drive to cover her tracks -- not to rectify persistent problems, as she claims.
Thomas, of Brainerd, defended giving the erroneous date by saying she had been confused about several dates.
She testified under questioning from record company lawyer Richard Gabriel that while pursuing a college degree in marketing, she did a case study on the original Napster file-sharing program and concluded that it was not illegal. A judge ruled in 2001 that it was.
She acknowledged she listened to -- or owned CDs released by -- more than 60 of the artists whose music was in the Kazaa file-sharing folder at the heart of the case. Thomas denied the folder was hers.
'Did you ever have Kazaa on your computer?' Thomas's attorney, Brian Toder, asked her.
'No,' Thomas said.
Earlier in the day, Thomas set up her computer in court to show the jury how quickly CDs could be copied onto it. That demonstration came in response to testimony from an expert for the record companies, Doug Jacobson, who said the songs on one of Thomas' computer drives were copied at a pace so fast it suggested piracy.
Many appeared just 15 seconds apart, which Jacobson claimed was faster than Thomas could have copied songs from CDs she owned onto the computer.
But each song Thomas copied in court over Gabriel's objection took less than 10 seconds to land on the computer.
Jacobson said the comparison might not be valid because the version of Windows Media Player that Thomas used to copy, or 'rip,' the CDs in court was different from what was available in February 2005, when the files in contention landed her hard drive.
Kevin Havemeier, Thomas' boyfriend at the time, testified that she had talked about problems with her hard drive before the lawsuit came up. He also said he never saw her download music.
A worker from Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad service testified that Thomas' hard drive was replaced under an extended warranty plan in 2005 that would generally have required her approval. But under cross-examination by Toder, the worker said he didn't have a record of her approving the replacement.
During cross-examinations of record company witnesses, Toder has raised doubts that the companies can prove it was Thomas who downloaded and shared the 1,702 songs.
The record companies involved in the lawsuit are Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Sales of recorded music have slumped in recent years as people have increasingly turned to file-sharing. The Recording Industry Association of America, which is not a party to the lawsuit, said record companies have brought more than 26,000 actions against people they allege shared files online in violation of copyrights. Most defendants have settled by paying a few thousand dollars.
Thomas, who works for the Department of Natural Resources of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, is at risk for a judgment of more than $1.2 million if jurors find she did illegally share all 1,702 songs. The companies are seeking damages set under federal law of $750 to $30,000 for each violation.
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