Kazaa music download trial in it's 2nd day

[Nanook]

In our local news the nations first trial of this kind has been drawing lots of attention!


Music Download Trial Starts in Minn.

By JOSHUA FREED – 16 hours ago

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — The nation's largest record companies took their fight against illegal downloads to a jury for the first time Tuesday, targeting a Minnesota woman they say improperly shared nearly 2,000 songs online.

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[BlessedLadyOfZion]

Re: Kazaa music download trial in it's 2nd day

Hmmm. Wonder when dem gwaan try de one mi recently use [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/whistle.gif[/img]

[djrosen1]

Re: Kazaa music download trial in it's 2nd day

Defendant's counsel hammers away at piracy picture painted by RIAA

By Eric Bangeman | Published: October 03, 2007 - 01:51PM CT

During the second morning of the Capitol v. Thomas trial, a clearer view of the two sides' legal strategy emerged. The RIAA, led by their counsel Richard Gabriel, is attempting to craft a carefully-constructed picture of the defendant as a KaZaA user whose "copying and distributing" music over the P2P network has harmed the record industry. The RIAA's counsel also hopes to paint a picture of the defendant as a habitual music thief who not only shares music, but also steals plenty of it herself. To that end, the RIAA is arguing that the music found on her computer during a forensic inspection was obtained illegally, by copying the music directly from another hard drive. In other words, she's guilty coming and going.

In contrast, the defendant's counsel, David Toder, has tried to plant the seeds of doubt about the real identity of the person detected using KaZaA by Media Sentry on the night of February 21, 2005. How can anyone be certain she was sharing the files? During the morning's session, he also attacked the RIAA's expert witness, Iowa State University computer science professor Doug Jacobson.

Professor Doug Jacobson conducted the forensic inspection of Thomas' hard drive, a drive which had been replaced under extended warranty by Best Buy about two weeks after the alleged infringement was noted by Media Sentry (but before the RIAA came calling). During its opening statements, the plaintiffs alluded to the possibility that the drive had been replaced in an attempt to wipe out any evidence of copyright infringement, but testimony from Ryan Maki, a Geek Squad "deputy of counterintelligence" (read: supervisor) resplendent in a Geek Squad sweater and sporting a law-enforcement-looking badge on his belt, confirmed Thomas' tale of hardware woes necessitating a replacement. It would appear that she had her drive swapped for a legitimate reason.

How fast can you rip?
This still leaves the question of the music found on Thomas' new hard drive. During Gabriel's direct examination of Jacobson, the investigator noted how close together the timestamps of the songs in Thomas' My Music folder were. "It is my opinion that the music files on the defendant's hard drive were placed there from another hard drive," affirmed Jacobson, attempting to account for the nature of the time stamps.

Once cross-examination began, Toder started asking Jacobson about things such as MAC address spoofing, cracking, P2P pollution, and multipeer contamination, intimating that one of those things could have been in play when Media Sentry detected the shared folder at the IP address in question. He then questioned Jacobson about his assertion that the music currently on Thomas' computer had to have come from a hard drive and announced that he wanted to demonstrate to the jury that it was possible to rip CDs as quickly as the timestamps from the forensic examination showed (the timestamps were approximately 15-20 seconds apart with a longer 30- to 45-second gap between CDs).

The RIAA's Gabriel objected, and the jury was led out as the attorneys discussed whether the demonstration should go forth. Judge Michael Davis gave his assent to the demonstration, and, after the jury filed back into the courtroom, Thomas ripped two CDs, timing it on her cell phone. When the first CD was done, she announced the time as 2:36.18. Gabriel immediately objected saying that they timed it at over four minutes. The apparently-amused judge said that the jurors could figure out the time for themselves. The second CD ripped in 2:17.71 according to the defendant's timing (I timed the second demonstration in 2:18.97). Gabriel again objected, saying that he had it at three-and-a-half minutes.

With the results in hand, Toder got Jacobson to admit that, despite whatever differences in hardware and software (e.g., WMP 11 versus WMP 10), the results of the test indicated that it was possible that the music was legitimately ripped from CD. "Is it still your testimony that the music on the defendant's computer was copied from a hard drive?" asked Toder.

"Given new versions of software, you could rip this fast," conceded Jacobson.

Thomas "a good music customer"
Aside from Jacobson and Maki, the only other two defendants called by the plaintiffs were Kevin Hebemeier, Thomas' ex-boyfriend, and Eric Stanley, a computer forensics expert originally retained by the defense. Stanley's testimony was very brief, but he did note that he was originally told that the hard drive was replaced in January or February of 2004, not March 2005 as it actually was.

It's unclear why the plaintiffs called Hebemeier, as he really didn't do much to help their case. He confirmed the defense's timeline of events—that there was a real hardware problem over a month before Thomas got a letter from Charter Communications. He recalled telling Thomas after the letter arrived that "there's nothing there because the hard drive was wiped out and replaced" and confirmed that she used the e-mail address [email protected].

Under cross-examination, Hebemeier said he never saw Thomas using KaZaA and that he never saw any evidence of its presence when he used her PC. He also said that he had witnessed her ripping CDs and had talked to her on the phone while she was in the process of ripping. He also said that she owned at least a "couple hundred" CDs.

During his cross-examination of Geek Squad member Ryan Maki, Toder was able to use Best Buy's sales history of Toder to show that she was an avid music fan that bought a lot of music from the store, both before and after February 2005. "Best Buy's records show that she bought hundreds of CDs before February 2005, did she not?" asked Toder.

"There are quite a few CDs and DVDs purchased," replied Maki. "She's a good customer."

The plaintiffs hope to wrap up their case this afternoon by calling another three or four witnesses consisting of record company executives and RIAA president Cary Sherman. So far, their case appears to be strong: they've shown that Thomas uses the "tereastarr" handle extensively (the KaZaA user identified by Media Sentry was "tereastarr@KaZaA"), that the IP address flagged by Media Sentry was assigned to her account at the time, and that only one MAC address was interfacing with the cable modem during the months before and after the alleged infringement. Where the RIAA's case seems to be running aground is in its attempt to paint her as a pirate. The defense appears to have successfully countered allegations that she was into large-scale piracy, instead showing that she's a devoted music fan who owns hundreds of CDs.

Of course, it will be up to the jury to make the final call. They seem to be following the proceedings with interest, although I've detected a couple cases of eyes glazing over when the testimony gets technical.

[Nanook]

Re: Both sides have rested their case

Thanks for that link Ramble On! I have only heard what is in the local news which, as you can imagine, has this as the big topic lately. I can't for sure remember what i heard but it was something like this is the first of 25,000 cases which have been charged and awaiting prosecution. Man, I am sure glad my Kazaa is on a different computer that I no longer own!


Both sides have rested.



More here


This will be interesting. Much rests on the verdict. I am praying for a not guilty! HOW can they PROVE!

[img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70384-praying.gif[/img]

[Nanook]

Re: Both sides have rested their case

Jammie Thomas spoke to a News Tribune reporter during the noon recess today. The single mother of two children said the lawsuit has changed her life.

“It’s been very stressful," she said. "I have multibillion-dollar corporations with their own economies of scale suing me, so it’s been very stressful.”

Thomas, 30, of Brainerd is employed by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in the administration of its natural resources department.

She said her life has changed dramatically.

“I no longer have any disposable income whatsoever,” she said. “My disposable income used to go for CDs, but obviously not any more. I’ve had to make some changes regarding extras for my children. All the disposable income went toward this case. I didn’t do this, and I refuse to be bullied.”

A Duluth Best Buy employee called to testify just before lunch couldn’t come up with a number when Thomas’s defense attorney, Brian Toder of Minneapolis, asked him if his client had purchased hundreds of CDs from Best Buy, but Ryan Maki, supervisor of the store’s Geek Squad, said store records made it look like Thomas has been a good customer.

Source & more links

[Nanook]

Re: Guilty! Now watch the...

what was it, 26,000 or so other pending cases.

DULUTH, Minnesota -- Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation's first file-sharing case to go before a jury.

Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

source and more