AUGUSTA — A Vassalboro woman fired after FairPoint Communications found 800 illegally downloaded music files on her work computer is collecting unemployment — and the company is claiming it’s unfair.

FairPoint has appealed the Maine Unemployment Insurance Commission’s benefits award to Jennifer H. Tanguay.

Tanguay, who worked for the company in Winthrop and South China for more than four years, was fired from her dispatch job Feb. 10, 2010.

Court records show that when her computer crashed on Feb. 2, 2010, technicians reported finding LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program used to download music, and about 800 illegally downloaded songs on her computer, as well as 12 computer viruses.

“By your actions,” FairPoint’s termination letter to Tanguay says, “you have engaged in illegal activity using a company computer while on company time, compromised the security of FairPoint’s computer network and exposed the company to potential legal liability for copyright infringement … a blatant and severe violation” of the company’s code of conduct.

Jeff Nevins, spokesman for FairPoint, said the company is appealing to protect the company’s unemployment insurance rates from rising.

“We’re not going to seek back benefits from Ms. Tanguay,” he said.

Tanguay initially was denied unemployment benefits. But the Maine Unemployment Insurance Commission overturned the denial 3-0, saying Tanguay “made an isolated error of judgment when she downloaded the LimeWire software on the company’s computer” and that the conduct “does not constitute misconduct as defined by the Employment Security Law.”

That law says, among other things, “Misconduct may not be found solely on an isolated error in judgment or failure to perform satisfactorily when the employee has made a good faith effort to perform the duties assigned.”

The commission decision also says that while FairPoint’s computer policies were reasonable, “They were not reasonably imposed, communicated or equitably enforced.”

Tanguay and FairPoint representatives told the insurance commission “the employer was aware that forms of software had been downloaded on the company’s computers.”

Tanguay said in an interview she was unaware she had violated a company policy.

“It was not intentional on my part,” she said Tuesday. She said she was singled out because co-workers did not get along with her.

The eight or nine months without unemployment benefits cost her dearly.

“I lost my apartment,” she said. “I had to move, I went through a lot of stress and severe depression. I went through hell for eight or nine months until they decided to give me my unemployment back.”

Tanguay said she is now taking college classes and continuing with counseling.

The Recording Industry of America, a trade organization, has filed numerous lawsuits involving illegal downloading of music, saying that from 2004 through 2009, “approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks.”

The United Kingdom-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, quoting a study that explored the Internet behavior of U.S. employees, said 15 percent of respondents indicated they had used peer-to-peer software at work at least once and 35 percent of white-collar workers said they had violated their company’s information technology policies at least once.

FairPoint’s appeal was filed by Seth Fairbanks in Kennebec County Superior Court. The commission is represented by Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Wyman.

Generally a ruling in this case, which is made by a single judge, takes about six months.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

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