Monday Evening Links > RIAA vows to stick it to Jammie Thomas

Attorney Tim Reynolds told a jury Monday that the record companies would prove that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, illegally shared songs on the Kazaa network.

"Record companies are made up of real people. ... People who deliver the music we all enjoy," Reynolds said in his opening statement as Thomas-Rasset's retrial got under way in federal court here.

Camara said the industry, at best, could prove only that her IP address — the Internet equivalent of a street address or phone number — was used in the alleged illegal file-sharing. He said they could not prove that Thomas herself swapped any music.

Along with the standard warnings judges give jurors at the start of a trial about discussing the case with anyone, Davis took the unusual step of warning them not to comment on it on the Internet via social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook, on blogs, or via e-mail or text messages until it's over.

"You'll be able to write your blogs or whatever you want to do, but that's at the end of the case," he said.