San Francisco - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is appealing a judge's decision to declare a mistrial in the case of Jammie Thomas, who was the first American to be convicted by a jury of copyright infringement on file-sharing networks and ordered to pay $220,000 in damages, Wired.com reported. The record label trade group has asked a judge to stay a pending retrial of Thomas while its appeal goes forward before a federal appeals court.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis declared a mistrial of the original case after concluding that his instructions to the jury were flawed.

Davis said that he erred when he told jurors that simply the "making available" of songs via a shared folder on a file-sharing network constitutes infringement, even if actual distribution has not been shown.

Jammie Thomas' attorney, Brian Toder, told Wired.com that he will "vigorously oppose" the RIAA's motion.

Related Links:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/riaa-appealing.html

http://snipurl.com/4fbnt (PDF: RIAA appeal)

http://snipurl.com/4fbm5 (DMW previous coverage)