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A single mother who took a stand against America’s biggest record companies over music piracy was fined $220,000 (£108,000) yesterday.

Jammie Thomas, a Native American from Minnesota, is one of 26,000 people whom the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued over the past four years for alleged use of music “file-sharing” software.

The 30-year-old made legal history after refusing to pay an out-of-court settlement, as all others challenged over their behaviour before her had done, but her failure to carry the case is likely further to embolden the music industry in its attempts to protect copyright.

A federal jury sitting in Duluth, Minnesota, ordered Ms Thomas, who has two children aged 11 and 13, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case.

The sum is equivalent to about five times her annual salary.

The fine will almost certainly go uncollected and is expected to drive Ms Thomas into bankruptcy.

The record companies alleged that she had shared 1,702 songs in all.

These songs included tracks by the Swedish “death metal” band Opeth, although tracks by Janet Jackson, Green Day, Guns ’N’ Roses, Journey, Destiny’s Child and others are believed to have been at issue in the case.

The companies accused her of offering the songs online through a Kazaa file-sharing account.

During the three-day trial, she denied having a Kazaa account but the 12-strong jury agreed unanimously that she had shared the files using the name “tereastarr".

Their witnesses, including officials from an Internet provider and a security firm, testified that the Internet address used by “tereastarr" belonged to Ms Thomas.

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