Free for a Fee

The Supreme Court of the United States announced on Monday that it has denied certiorari (PDF)—declined to hear the case—of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota woman who was ordered to pay $222,000 after having downloaded 24 songs off Kazaa several years ago. When her legal travails began in 2007, the case was the first trial involving unauthorized file-sharing of intellectual property heard by a jury in the United States.

The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari means that the decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit ruling (PDF) in September 2012 will stand. The Eighth Circuit upheld the very first ruling for $222,000 (at $9,250 per song) in damages. It’s an amount which has varied across three subsequent trials, reaching as high as $1.92 million and later falling to $54,000 (upheld last year before later being overturned by the Eighth Circuit).