The EFF surely wants Jammie Thomas not to settle at any price, while the RIAA, even though it won $1.92 from a jury, surely wants her to, likely for any price.

Mike Masnick of Techdirt reports that the RIAA is anxious to settle the case in which it won $1.92 million from Jammie Thomas-Rasset for illegally downloading 24 songs. As Masnick writes, the RIAA “seems to recognize that the insanity of the $1.92 million doesn’t do it any favors. Even the musicians whose music was part of the case are embarrassed by the amount. . . . the RIAA would love to settle the lawsuit for some lower amount so it can run around touting the ‘risks’of file sharing without having people laugh outloud when hearing that someone had to pay $1.92 million for potentially sharing 24 songs that could be bought for $1 each.”

Masnick writes too that he’s been expecting Jammie Thomas to settle “but the longer this goes on, the more I wonder if she’s actually planning to fight on. If so, this could certainly represent a case to examine the statutory rates associated with copyright violations.”

Mike is more right than he may know. Any lawyer interested in challenging the constitutionality of the statutory penalties imposed by the Copyright Act would want to represent Jammie Thomas on this appeal. When a lawyer looks to challenge a law, if he’s got any sense he doesn’t challenge it via any case that happens to come up. He chooses a case that presents especially good facts for the challenge. The EFF would love to have Jammie Thomas appeal – no case involving a defendant found liable for illegal downloading would be a better vehicle for bringing the challenge to the statutory penalties.