MINNEAPOLIS -- Testimony about a second, previously undisclosed hard drive in Jammie Thomas-Rasset's computer threw a brief wrench into her music download trial today in U.S. District Court.
An Iowa State University professor testified in U.S. District Court this morning that the hard drive on Thomas-Rasset's computer was replaced about two weeks after she received a copyright infringement warning saying it is illegal to offer copyrighted music to others from her computer.
However, Douglas Jacobson also testified that there was another, external hard drive in the defendant's computer, which was news to the defense team. Jacobson has a doctorate in computer engineering and is an expert on computer security.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley argued that Jacobson's testimony should be struck because he didn't disclose the information of another hard drive to the defense. Jacobson testified that he had just informed the plaintiffs a couple of days ago.
In arguments scheduled after lunch outside the jury's hearing, Sibley told the court that the plaintiffs "threw a skunk in the jury box."
ADVERTISEMENT
Judge Michael Davis ruled that jurors will be told to disregard the testimony pertaining to the exterior hard drive. There is no basis for the testimony, he ruled.
Timothy Reynolds, the Denver attorney representing the plaintiffs and the Recording Industry Association of America, apologized to the court and to the defense team for his team's failure to disclose Jacobson's evidence. Reynolds said he was "clearly surprised" to hear the testimony.
During the morning recess, Thomas-Rasset told a reporter that she was told she could be called to testify by the plaintiffs as early as today.
Cara Duckworth, director of communications for the RIAA in Washington, D.C., confirmed that the defendant will be called either this afternoon or tomorrow.
Outside the courtroom, Thomas-Rasset said she has seen slightly more media coverage of the case than it received when first tried in Duluth in 2007. The biggest difference, she said, was in the media attention her Houston attorneys, Sibley and Kiwi Camara, have received.
She said her mother-in-law lives in a Twin Cities suburb and she has been able to stay with her. The defendant was text-messaging one of her four sons during the morning recess.
The recording companies say they own or control exclusive rights to, and hold valid copyright registrations for, 24 songs that Thomas-Rasset allegedly downloaded and distributed through her Charter Internet account from and to other users of the KaZaA file sharing network.
The statutory damages for non-willful infringement range from a minimum of $750 for each song to a maximum of $30,000 for each song. In the case of willful infringement, the court may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of $150,000 per infringement.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thomas-Rasset denies any wrongdoing. Her attorneys say there is no evidence she illegally downloaded music.
