The Associate Press reports (via Excite.com) that the first actual trial alleging copyright infringement for P2P filesharing is underway in Dulluth, MN. The plaintiffs are Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc. The RIAA is not a party to the litigation.
The defendant, Jammie Thomas, is a 30 year old mother of 2 who denies sharing music files using Kazaa.
[defense attorney Brian] Toder's cross-examination has focused on raising doubt about whether the record companies can really prove it was Thomas who downloaded and shared the 1,702 songs, as the record companies allege she did in 2005.
He suggested in his questioning that someone other than Thomas - someone outside her window, or a neighbor - could have been responsible if she used a wireless router. That could have allowed anyone nearby to utilize her Internet connection, using the same address that led the record companies to Thomas.
The companies have backed up their claims with literally a wall of data - enlarging printouts of logs and dates and Internet addresses on a screen in front of jurors, with Gabriel [Richard Gabriel, lead attorney for the music companies] zeroing in with a laser pointer to highlight the entries he says prove Thomas did what they say she did.
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