Obama Administration Defends A Massive File-Sharing Award Against Single Mom

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was ordered to pay $220,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 24 tracks, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case and overturn the massive verdict.

The Recording Industry Association of America is obviously asking the high court to leave the case alone.

Now the federal government has filed a brief arguing that the huge award is warranted under the Copyright Act, Wired has reported.

Copyrights benefit the public interest because they motivate authors to create new works, the government argued.

"That public interest cannot be realized if the inherent difficulty of proving actual damages leaves the copyright holder without an effective remedy for infringement or precludes an effective means of deterring further copyright violations," the government's motion stated.

Thomas-Rasset wasn't accused of downloading a few songs for personal use, but it's pretty clear she didn't make a career out of file-sharing.

She's an environmental coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has reported, and unlike many alleged file-sharers, she refused to settle out of court.

Thomas-Rasset told City Pages that she just didn't have the thousands of dollars the recording association demanded.

The stakes are huge if the Supreme Court chooses not to take her case. She'll file for bankruptcy if she ultimately loses, the Star-Tribune reported.