It appears that courts are becoming increasingly restrictive on the scope of RIAA claims, and new arguments, and possibly a new jury trial, have been ordered as a result.

In this case, the RIAA got a judgment of $220,000.00 from Ms. Davis, but:

That was the case in the trial last fall of Jammie Thomas of Brainerd. A U.S. district court judge, Michael Davis, instructed jurors that making sound recordings available without permission violates record company copyrights “regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown.”

On Thursday, Davis said that may have been a mistake.

He wrote that he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Minnesota, that said infringement requires “an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.”

One wonders why he is asking for a re-ruling without either side having brought up this original ruling.

My guess is that his grand kid with the iPod told him.