Jurors to judge: What is minimum fine in music file sharing case?

The jury considering the recording industry's civil lawsuit against a Brainerd woman in U.S. District Court is still deliberating, but has sent out two questions to the judge.

Jurors asked to see a copy of a sworn deposition that defendant Jammie Thomas gave earlier this year.

Richard Gabriel, the Denver attorney representing the Recording Industry Association, referred to the deposition several times while examining Thomas on the stand Wednesday. The deposition had not been entered as evidence, and U.S. Federal Judge Michael J. Davis denied the jury's request.

Jurors also wanted to clarify what minimum amount they were required to fine Thomas if she is found guilty. Davis told attorneys that he was informing jurors that the minimum fine for each instance of copyright infringement is $750. If the infringement is found not willful, the jury can set a fine between $750 and $30,000 for each instance.

If it is found willful, the maximum fine is $150,000 per instance. The jury was specifically asking about the minimum, non-willful fine amount.

Thomas is accused of downloading and sharing certain music files. Six recording companies are seeking damages that could reach millions of dollars.

Davis gave final instructions to a 12-person jury at 11:13 a.m. today, which will decide the fate of a recording industry lawsuit against a 30-year-old Brainerd woman.

Thomas and her attorney spoke briefly this afternoon. Thomas said listening to the plaintiffs' closing argument left a bad taste in her mouth.

"They were taking the evidence that was presented and twisting it," she said.

This morning, Gabriel, the Denver attorney representing the Recording Industry Association, acknowledged that the woman they are targeting purchased a lot of CDs.

But that doesn't give her the right to share copyrighted material, he said.

Today is the third day of a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Duluth against Thomas, who is accused of downloading and sharing certain music files. Six recording companies are seeking damages that could reach millions of dollars.

Gabriel said there is no question that someone using the name " Terastar@Kazaa " distributed copyrighted material, the question is was the user Thomas, 30.

The weight of the evidence shows it was, Gabriel said.

"All fingers point at Jammie Thomas in this case," he said, noting her user name, IP address, Modem Mac address, pass-word-protected computer, and the songs in the shared folder matched her musical tastes.

"We connected the dots for you," he told the jurors.

Gabriel spent much his 42 minutes in closing arguments reviewing evidence that his side presented, discussing the lack of evidence presented by the defense.

The defense offered no evidence that Thomas did not violate copyright infringement, Gabriel said. Instead the defense offered speculation, red herrings and smoke-and-mirrors, he said.

The recording industry would have preferred not to bring this to trial, he said, but the woman did not accept responsibility for what she did.

"We're asking you to hold her responsible," Gabriel said.

If there is no verdict before 4:15 p.m. today, they will resume deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Previously, Minneapolis defense attorney Brian Toder told jurors that the recording industry's claims against his client are based solely on circumstantial evidence.

Toder said the recording industry has evidence that someone called "Terastar" shared files using the Internet Protocol address assigned to his client.

But there are alternative possibilities as to what happened, Toder said.

"We don't have an idea of what happened," he said. "All we know is that Jammie Thomas did not do this."

"They have the burden of proving that Jammie Thomas, a human being, got on her keyboard and sent these things out," Toder said. "The plaintiffs on this record, have not met the burden of proof."

The attorney spent much of his 20-minute closing argument going over and disputing evidence presented by the plaintiffs. He referred to the recording industry's star witness, Iowa State University professor and computer security expert Doug Jacobson, as a "hired gun," with a financial incentive in this case.

"He was making up things as he went along," Toder said. "I respectfully ask you to reject all the testimony of Dr. Jacob-son."

Toder mentioned that his client has purchased a large number of CDs from Best Buy. "She is somebody who buys her CDs," he said.

A six-man, six-woman jury must now decide the first file-sharing copyright infringement case to go to trial.

The lawsuit was brought by the Recording Industry Association of America -- representing Virgin Records, Capitol Re-cords, Sony BMG, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records and UMG Recordings. The suit claims that Thomas distributed 1,702 digital audio files -- many of them the plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings -- from the KaZaA shared folder on her computer to potentially millions of other KaZaA users for free.

The plaintiffs are seeking from $750 to $150,000 in statutory damages for each of 24 copyrighted sound recordings they allege Thomas pirated.

On Wednesday, Thomas, 30-year-old, single mother of two, testified that she had never heard of KaZaA before the lawsuit.