RIAA Lawsuit Defendant Clarifies Hard Drive Situation, Encourages Other Defendants to Fight Back

Jammie Thomas, who owes record labels $222K after being found guilty of sharing 24 songs over the Kazaa file sharing network, says she had nothing to do with the decision to replace her hard drive, which could not be admitted as evidence, having fallen out of her possession. Some speculated during the trial that she had disposed of the hard drive intentionally, in order to foil part of the RIAA's investigation.

Apparently, though, her child broke the computer in frustration after a videogame froze up. She says Best Buy replaced its hard drive (under warranty) on its own recognizance, and not, as some suggested, because she was trying to hide something. Thomas claims to have purchased over 240 CDs in her life -- mostly while she herself worked at Best Buy during college -- so itstands to reason that she would understand the store's repair policy.

From her accountof the lawsuit on p2pnet,

I brought my computer into Best Buy for repairs on March 7, 2005.
Remember, I brought it in for repairs under the extended warranty, notto have the hard drive replaced. And if anyone who has used a largechain electronic store to repair their electrical equipment knows,
these companies do not replace hard drives on the whim of the customer if they have to pay for the hard drive replacement covered underwarranty. They try to do whatever is cheaper for the company, whichnormally means fixing the issues with the hard drive. With my harddrive, the issues couldn't be fixed so Best Buy, not me but Best Buy,
made the decision to replace the hard drive.

Thomas also said she wishes she'd used a "spoofing"defense (claimingthat someone else using Kazaa had been faking her IP address), andregrets not having been able to afford to pay the expert witness who inspected her computer; as a result, he never testified.

Considering hindsight is always 20/20, I can look back now and seemany things I could have or should have done differently. I could havesettled before I was even sued. I could have settled many times beforethe case went to trial. I could have worked harder to find a way toafford the things I needed at trial. But I refuse to live liferegretting could haves or would have or should haves.

The one piece of advice I can give to anyone who finds themselvesbeing sued or threatened to be sued by the RIAA is to fight back.

The more people fight back against these cases, the more expensive itwill be for the RIAA to bring these suits and the less resources theRIAA will have to use against others.

As things stand now, Thomas owes the labels $222K, but her lawyer hasfiled a motion to have the verdict thrown out or the judgmentreduced.

(p2pnet; image adapted from gizmodo)