In the case of the Minnesota woman who had been convicted of violating copyright laws by downloading songs from a peer-to-peer site, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis has granted a new trial on Wednesday and said he made an error in his jury instructions that may have prejudiced the outcome.

Jamie Thomas was initially found guilty of downloading 24 tracks off the internet site Kazaa and was ordered to pay $222,000 to six record companies. That equates to $9,250 per downloaded song.

Judge Davis declared the mistrial because he said he believes he misled the jury in the initial court case when he told the jury that sharing music was the same as distributing it and that Jury Instruction No. 15 was erroneous and that error substantially prejudiced Thomas’s rights.

The above-mentioned Jury Instruction says: "The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."

In the ruling, the court asked Congress for legislation better defining what peer-to-peer piracy entailed, and what the consequences should be. Thomas' actions, the court said, were far different than the sort of copyright infringement the law was set up to prosecute, where works are copied and then sold for profit, as she is not a business, but a mere individual music consumer.

Though illegal, her actions are common, especially among young people and punishing her would only set an example, but will not stop the real pirates who make millions on the labels’ back.