In a US case of copyright infringement, a jury in April decided
that music company MP3.com should pay a small record company the
sum of $300,000. Later, the jury confessed to the judge in the case
that their calculation was in error. The intended figure was
between $2 million and $3 million. The court has now declared a
mistrial.
MP3.com had initially claimed victory following the original
verdict, having been sued originally for $8.5 million by Tee Vee
Tunes (TVT). It later transpired that jurors had omitted a zero in
calculating the damages due on one juror’s Palm Pilot. The jury
first said that a sum of $3,125 should be paid by MP3.com for
certain tracks made available on its site without permission from
the copyright owner, TVT. In fact, the jury's intended sum was
$31,250 per track.
Judge Jed S. Rakoff yesterday ordered a new trial with a new
jury.
