RIAA Thomas Appeal Denied; Retrial Likely to Set New Copyright Infringement Course

A federal judge is denying the Recording Industry Association of America's request to appeal his decision granting a retrial in the RIAA's only file sharing case to go to trial.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Minnesota declared a mistrial in the Jammie Thomas case months ago and nullified the jury's $222,000 award against the Minnesota woman for sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa network. The judge declared a mistrial a year following the 2007 trial after concluding that making available copyrighted songs for download on a peer-to-peer networks did not amount to copyright infringement, as he erroneously instructed the jury.

The RIAA sought permission to appeal, a decision the judge has now rejected (.pdf) for the same reason he declared a mistrial.