Woman forces US record industry to drop file-sharing case
Dangerous precedent set
By OUT-LAW.COM Thursday 3rd August 2006
[HEAVILY PARAPHRASED BY ME]
Tammie Marson of Palm Desert, California refused to pay the initial $3,500 demanded by a group of record labels and opted to fight the case in court. The record companies – Virgin, Sony BMG, Arista, Universal and Warner Brothers – agreed to dismiss the case and pay their own legal costs.
"The best they could ever prove was somebody had used Tammie Marson's internet account to download the music or make it available. That's the best they could ever do."
Marson argued that as a cheerleader teacher she had had hundreds of girls through her house, any one of whom could have used her computer. She also used a wireless internet network, meaning that people outside of her house could have used her internet connection. "She doesn't even know what a shared folder is," said Kouretchian.
If this becomes a popular defence it could seriously hamper a huge number of file-sharing lawsuits taken in the US against individuals.
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