Jammie Thomas-Rasset has rejected a $25,000 settlement offer from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"The RIAA accused Thomas-Rasset of illegally downloading and distributing 30 copyrighted songs belonging to six music labels," writes Computerworld's Jaikumar Vijayan. "Thomas-Rasset is one of thousands who have been sued for music piracy by the RIAA, but her case is one of only two that has gone to trial."

"But what I'd really like to know is whether the record companies were damaged to the tune of $200,000? $25,000? $1,920,000? Maybe a dollar? Maybe a billion? Which is it, RIAA?" asks The Inquisitr's Kim LaCapria.

"It is fairly clear that the RIAA companies are no longer in this one for the money, but want to make an example of Thomas-Rasset," writes The Inquirer's Ed Berridge. "Joe Sibley, an attorney for Thomas-Rasset, said his client will not settle. It is all the same, as she just doesn't have the money to pay any of the penalty amounts, and it would be financially ruinous."

More here from Rolling Stone ... more here from Copyrights & Campaigns ... and more here from CNET News.

Image above is from The Inquisitr.

A federal judge has reduced Jammie Thomas-Rasset's fine for sharing 24 songs from $1.92 million to $54,000.

"Judge Davis of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota slashed 97% off the fine by using his power of remittitur," writes OSnews' Thom Holwerda.

"In reviewing the case, Judge Davis argued against penalizing Thomas the minimum of $750 per song because of inconsistencies in her testimony," writes Slyck's Thomas Mennecke. "Because he found Thomas' actions willful, he hiked the penalty to $2,250 per song."

"Thomas-Rasset, now 32, said she doesn't have the money to pay even that reduced judgment, and that her house in Brainerd, Minnesota is homesteaded and protected from a judgment," writes Wired's David Kravets. "The mother of four said she is a 'very low- to middle-income' earner who works for a local Native American tribe."

More here from Computerworld ... and more here from Electronista.

Oink founder Alan Ellis has been acquitted in a UK court.

"Oink, one of the world's largest file-sharing website, was started by Ellis in 2004 and had about 200,000 members who were able to share and download music files for free until it was closed down in October 2007 following a police raid," writes The Next Reporter's Penelope Madrigal.

"Like most torrent networks Oink did not host any media files," notes TechWhack's Manuj Kumar. "It just provided a way to allow users to share them through torrent files and a tracker."

"That Ellis is walking away is really quite an achievement, both for him and the British legal system: he simply told the court that he had no intention to defraud copyright holders," writes Download Squad's Sebastian Anthony. "When asked why he set the site up, while giving evidence, he said: 'It was to further my skills. To better my skills for employability.'"

More here from TopNews UK ... more here from TorrentFreak ... more here from Mashable ... and more here from Broadband Genie.

Joel Tenenbaum, who has been ordered to pay $675,000 to four record labels for downloading 30 songs, has asked for a retrial or a decreased fine.

"Among other claims, lawyers for defendant Joel Tenenbaum asserted Monday this summer's verdict was unconstitutionally excessive," writes Wired's David Kravets. "The essence of the argument is that a penalty of $22,500 a song is simply too big, it shocks the conscience and it's 'obviously unreasonable.'"

"Tenebuam's appeal is based on a 100-year-old precedent, which maintains that damages awarded according to a specific statute are invalid if they are 'so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable,'" writes The Inquirer's Stewart Meagher.

More here from ZeroPaid ... more here from The Register ... more here from BBC News ... and more here from Music Ally.

Kaspersky Lab's 2010 cyberthreat forecast anticipates that malware writers will increasingly target P2P networks in the coming year.

"Kaspersky Lab said that it expects an increase in mass malware epidemics over P2P networks," writes Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng. "2009 saw a series of mass malware epidemics that were not caused by, but supported by files that were spread over P2P networks."

"As usual the safest method of protection is to only open and install content from trusted sources, i.e. private BitTorrent tracker sites," writes ZeroPaid's Jared Moya.

More here from Maximum PC ... and more here from PC World.