The RIAA won a $222,000 judgement in the file sharing case Capitol vs. Thomas.

Ars Technica summarizes the case with followup reporting:

Judge bars testimony from Capitol Records president

Debate over "making available" jury instruction

Jury finds Thomas liable for infringement

Thomas will appeal

Especially contentious was the issue of what constitutes copyright infringement in a file sharing case: is it enough to make the files available (in the sense that they are indexed for searches by other people) or must the plaintiff show evidence that the files were actually transfered to others? There have been several cases recently where judges have ruled differently on this issue. Reportedly the appeal will focus on this.

Other links:

Commentary from the EFF

Commentary from a writer who cannot afford to defend his copyrights the way the RIAA does.

Commentary by Declan McCullough.

Interview with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)

Commentary with lots of links to additional material.