RIAA rejects damage award, forces trial, looks hypocritical...

What price innocent infringement? That's the question a San Antonio jury will have to address in mid-November, as the RIAA and 20-year-old Whitney Harper will battle in court over the amount of damages Harper will have to pay to the record labels after being found liable for copyright infringement by a federal judge. 

Harper was 16 when MediaSentry discovered and downloaded a number of tracks from what proved to be her shared folder on KaZaA. The record labels sued her father, but he was dropped from the suit once Whitney admitted to using KaZaA for downloading and sharing music. Her admission was enough to convince Judge Xavier Rodriguez to hand the RIAA a summary judgment this past August, but he ruled that damages be capped at $200 per song, not the $750 at minimum sought by the RIAA. 

The reason for the $200 limit was Harper's innocent infringement defense. More...

See also:

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• The music industry abuses us and we're to blame...
• Tanya Andersen wins her battle against the RIAA!
• Music piracy: RIAA screws the artists...