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. Marson and her lawyer Seyamack Kouretchian
of Coast Law Group argued that the fact that Marson's computer
contained illegal music files downloaded over her internet
connection was not proof that she had committed a crime.
The record companies – Virgin, Sony BMG, Arista, Universal and
Warner Brothers – agreed to dismiss the case and pay their own
legal costs.
"They don't take these cases to trial, they either settle or
dismiss," Kouretchian told OUT-LAW. "It was our position that they
could not ever prove that Tammie Marson downloaded this music or
that Tammie Marson made it available. It was just an absolute
impossibility. 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. It also looks to be a trend in defence against movie
file-sharing law suits.
Software executive Shawn Hogan is using a similar argument in
his response to a film industry case against him. He has decided to
fight the case rather than pay the $2,500 demanded of him, even
though it will cost him far more than that. His case is that he did
not commit an offence and that the film industry cannot prove that
he did.
"They’re completely abusing the system … I would spend well into
the millions on this [lawsuit]," he told Wired magazine.
Kouretchian said that Marson chose to take a similarly
principled stand. "Copyright is my area of expertise, we weren't
going to fold. They tested the waters with us to see if my client
was prepared to go the distance," he said. "We weren't going to be
fooled by the allegations and the threats."
