Los Angeles - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will let a jury decide the amount of copyright infringement damages an admitted file-swapper must pay, after it rejected a federal judge's suggestion that she pay $200 per song, less than the $750 minimum sought by the record label trade group, Ars Technica reports.

Whitney Harper was 16 years old when first accused of offering songs for sharing on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network four years ago.

While Harper admitted to using Kazaa, the judge in the case sided with her argument that she had "no knowledge or understanding of file trading, online distribution networks or copyright infringement," and therefore did not know what she was doing was illegal.

Due to this "innocent infringement" defense, Judge Xavier Rodriguez limited Harper's liability to $200 per song.

The RIAA has opted, however, to decline this offer and instead allow a jury to determine damages.

Those proceedings are slated for mid-November, Ars reports.

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http://snipurl.com/3t523 (Ars Technica)