Last fall a Minnesota woman was ordered by the courts to pay over $200,000 in fines in the first case of music download filesharing that went to trial. The court is now about to hear new arguments which could change the ruling in that case. The issue of contention was that the judge previously advised the jury that the woman was guilty of a crime simply for making the music available online; it didn’t matter whether or not anyone had actually downloaded the music.

Through a review of case history, the judge who made that ruling has found that he may have been incorrect; the law may require that there be actual distribution of the music for there to be a crime. In other words, the court is hearing arguments to the effect that there actually had to be files shared in order for there to be a filesharing crime. Because the judge believes he may have been in error, both parties are invited back to the court in July to present their sides of this issue.