San Francisco - The U.S. Justice Department has filed a legal brief defending the copyright law that enabled an award of $220,000 in damages to the major record labels, in a copyright infringement case they brought against Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota woman who was found by a jury to have shared 24 songs on a file-sharing network, CNET News.com reports.

The article states that Thomas' argument seems to be that the $220,000 in damages are so high -- for songs that would cost a total of $24 to purchase digitally -- that they are unconstitutionally unfair.

"The federal copyright statute...has consistently included special provisions to ensure significant monetary awards in copyright infringement suits that will make copyright owners whole and deter further infringement," the DOJ brief reads.

The filing also alludes to "potentially millions" of subsequent infringements that could have been committed as a result of the defendant, Jammie Thomas, having made those 24 files available.

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