July 07, 2010

By By Glenn Peoples

Capital v. Thomas, the most famous of file-sharing cases, appears it is headed back to court.

Even with the help of court-appointed special master, Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the major record labels could not reach an agreement on a settlement amount. ?As the court is aware,? reads the joint motion filed Monday, ?the parties have repeatedly attempted to settle this case, both on their own accord and by order of the Court. Those efforts have, unfortunately, been fruitless because of the substantially divergent views of the parties regarding copyright law and the merits of this case.?

The motion describes the considerable efforts taken by both parties to reach an agreement and concludes that ?[a]ny further settlement efforts would be futile.? Earlier this year, Thomas-Rasset refused a $25,000 settlement offer by the labels.

As legal blogger Ben Sheffner explains at Copyrights & Campaigns, the third trial will cover only damages ? Thomas-Rasset?s guilty status is unchanged. The second trial resulted in a guilty conviction and a penalty of $1.92 million awarded by the jury, although the court later lowered that amount to $54,000. The first trial also resulted in a defeat for Thomas-Rasset but the court granted a second trial due to an error in jury instructions.

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