Get Legit, or else

[DJPhaidon]

Another reason to get all your stuff legally.

"Federal Jury: Music Downloader Owes $1.92 Million

Jammie Thomas-Rasset went to trial this week hoping to nullify an earlier judgment against her on charges that she illegally downloaded music from the Internet. But in this week's jury trial she was deemed liable to pay $80,000 per song or $1.92 million.
An earlier jury had delivered a verdict in which she was deemed liable for $9,250 for each downloaded song.

This week's trial, in a Minnesota federal court, was short and sweet for the Recording Industry Association of America, which had brought the charges against Thomas-Rasset in the nation's sole music file-sharing case that has gone to trial. The RIAA recently changed its tactics against what it maintains is the illegal downloading of music from the Internet. Now it is asking internet service providers to send warnings to suspected illegal downloaders.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that (money)," said Ms Thomas-Rasset after the trial Thursday, according to media reports. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."

"In the end, the jury awarded the RIAA $1.92 million or $80,000 a song. Earlier, the RIAA had initiated more than 30,000 lawsuits against persons it claimed had illegally downloaded music. Most of them settled for $3,500, but some said they were innocent of the charges but didn't have the financial resources to defend themselves in expensive litigation."

Full article http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=218100335

[summervest]

Fucked up shit. It's basically big money bully tactics from a bunch of money hungry pricks.

[Karlos Santos]

Or, its a thief getting caught stealing.
Im not saying its right or wrong but she knew she was breaking the law and shes been caught.
Dunno how they can justify the $80,000 per song but hey, dont do the crime if you cant do the time.

*typical comment from me eh*

[DvlsAdvct]

While I agree with you, Karlos, that they broke the law, this does seem a little exhorbidant.

I mean, is the individual value of every song she downloaded $80,000 in their digital format? I mean, it's one thing to take the music, charge her a fine and let her go. But I don't think it's fair to punish someone using rules that are not fit to deal with the laws they are breaking.

If she had walked in to a CD store and stolen these albums instead of downloading them it wouldn't have cost her nearly as much. And then, if the digital format is worth more than the hard copy that I'd buy, that doesn't make any sense.

[Karlos Santos]

Yeah id totally agree with all that. Its fucked up.

[BentoSan]

Its more of a scare campaign - like she basically said herself shes never going to have to pay for anyway.

Boycott the RIAA completely, including their torrents and their outdated business model finally die.

[feralchimp]

a modest proposal for alternative resolution:

defendant deletes all pirated music; defendant sentenced to hours of community service equal to double the total time to download all pirated tracks at 10Mbps; RIAA lawyers pay the defendant's attorneys fees and each get punched in the nuts for wasting the court with this crap.

[BentoSan]

Yeah meanwhile us taxpayers are paying for a slice of the costs of all of this - we fund the courts that these lawsuits are held after all.

[Nephew]

It is scare tactics, and that's not going to solve anything. If they really want to solve the problem you really need to start with the younger generations and educate them about piracy and how it hurts the artists and labels. It needs to be a cultural change more than anything I think

[djhipnotikk]

i'm just wondering how they caught her.