The case of Jammie Thomas, the woman found guilty and ordered to pay a $220,000 fine, takes a new turn, as a federal judge declared it a mistrial. Judge Michael J. Davis explained that there was an error that "substantially prejudiced" her rights and that the matter demands a second look.

The entire problem began when she was accused of sharing 24 songs via the P2P app Kazaa and the decision required her to pay $220,000 to the four major record labels and also two others.

The issue raised by the judge is whether these record labels must actually prove that their music was indeed illegally downloaded or it is enough for someone to share the tracks in order to receive a conviction. Still, it is expected that the record labels will appeal the decision and take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

"Now they're going to have to prove their claims," Thomas said. "They never had to prove anything before. Now they do. It kind of levels the playing field a little bit."

Another issue addressed by Judge Davis is the amount of money demanded by the record companies. He demanded that Congress change the federal Copyright act and referred to the decision of awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages as highly oppressive and unprecedented. He argued that the defendant is just an individual, a consumer that did not profit from her acts and should be treated different than an illegal business sponging off the work of others. He admitted that the woman’s actions were illegal, but also extremely common, as there are many other Internet users doing the same thing. He considers that demanding over $200,000 for the use of about 3 CDs that amount up to about $50 is inappropriate and there should be a better solution available.

"The Court does not condone Thomas's actions, but it would be a farce to say that a single mother's acts of using Kazaa are the equivalent, for example, to the acts of global financial firms illegally infringing on copyrights in order to profit in the securities market," Davis explained.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is conducting a massive campaign against music piracy and such a decision is exactly what might have significantly helped its cause. This is the reason why it is very unlikely that RIAA’s officials will take this mistrial sitting down and they are expected to act on it, looking to enforce these harsh rules against illegal music use.

RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy stated that the decision was not surprising but the association’s members are still very confident in their case. "As with all our illegal downloading cases, we have evidence of actual distribution--an assertion this court and others nationwide have made clear constitutes infringement. We have confidence in the facts assembled against the defendant," he said, referring to the fact that Thomas kept the songs in a shared folder that could have been accessed by any of Kazza’s users.