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Minnesota Mom Fined $1.9M for Illegal Music Downloads

Guilty verdict given in do-over of country's first file-sharing trial

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 19, 2009 4:12 AM CDT

(Newser) – A Minnesota woman has been fined $80,000 per song for each of 24 music files she illegally downloaded, CNN reports. The court ordered Jammie Thomas to pay $1.92 million to the Recording Industry of America. Her original trial—America's first for music file-sharing—granted the RIAA just $220,000, but a retrial was ordered after a mistake in jury instructions came to light. She plans to appeal.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Jammie Thomas-Rasset has been ordered to pay $1.92 million to the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music files. (AP Photo/Julia Cheng, File)

Jammie Thomas of Brainerd, Minn., left, leaves a federal courthouse after the jury returned a verdict against her in her first civil trial for alleged music pirating. (AP Photo)

Jammie Thomas has been found guilty of illegally downloading and sharing music over the Internet. (AP Photo/Julia Cheng)

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We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this issue as seriously as we do. - RIAA spokeswoman Carrie Duckworth

There's no way they're ever going to get that. I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now. - Jammie Thomas-Rasset

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Minnesota Mom Fined $1.9M for Illegal Music Downloads