Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas

Jammie Thomas (defendant) used the Kazaa file-sharing program to download and share copyrighted songs owned by Capitol Records and other companies (plaintiffs), who sued for injunctive relief and statutory damages. The jury was instructed that merely making copyrighted recordings available on a peer-to-peer network without a license infringed the distribution right, regardless of whether actual distribution to others was proven, and found Thomas liable, awarding $9,250 per infringement. After the verdict, the district court sua sponte reconsidered whether that jury instruction correctly stated the law on what proof distribution infringement requires.