Illegal download jury ruling: $80,000 per song

[shining-Celebi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading

MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.

A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.

Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.

The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.

Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.

Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.

"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
....
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.

The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.

I just love how the recording companies act like they don't make millions anyway.

The songs aren't even worth that much! Poor Lady!

 

[Nekusagi]

...why do the courts always go along with these rulings?

They're clearly corrupt (the record industry), so I don't get why federal courts just roll over with this corruption and accept it. It's certainly not ruling in favor of the people.

 

[DerMißingno]

A better question is why did the jury go along with this! What a bunch of sadistic ass holes!

 

[I Started A Cult]

♪Now don't go stealing money from artists just like me!
How else can I afford another solid gold Humvee
Or diamond studded swimming pool? Those things don't grow on trees,you know!♫

 

[Legacy]

Yea I heard about this...unbelievable. Our tax dollars are funding these ridiculous cases...cool.

 

[Phoenicks]

@ Khom?s

OMG, I was just listening to that song as I read your post.

@ TheMissingNo.

Technically, the jury were right in prosecuting her for downloading songs illegally. It's against the law. The problem lies with the idiot judges who deemed each song download to be worth $80,000. I'm pretty sure that when I buy a song on iTunes, it's considerably cheaper than that.

 

[ferrari-kun187]

$50 per song makes more senes than $80,000. what idiots.

 

[Zephy]

80,000$? For 99 cent songs?
....
Now I'm scared.

I agree that it should be more along the lines of 50$ or 25$.

 

[Lethal Carnivine]

If a person is downloading songs in the first place, how do they honestly expect her to pay that ridiculous fine?

 

[Nekusagi]

This is why I use DDLs for my downloading. They can't be tracked by IP like torrents.

 

[Mitchman]

This is why I use DDLs for my downloading. They can't be tracked by IP like torrents.

When you say DDLs?

 

[Nekusagi]

Direct download. Megaupload, rapidshare, etc. As opposed to p2p downloads (the kind the industry tracks).

Most of them have servers in Hong Kong, where the bureaucracy is such a pain in the ass the companies don't bother getting IP lists from them because of all the red tape (and even then, they're require a warrant, AFAIK).

 

[Mitchman]

Direct download. Megaupload, rapidshare, etc. As opposed to p2p downloads (the kind the industry tracks).

Most of them have servers in Hong Kong, where the bureaucracy is such a pain in the ass the companies don't bother getting IP lists from them because of all the red tape (and even then, they're require a warrant, AFAIK).

Ah sites like 4shared correct? Cause I stopped my p2p downloading in February.

 

[Baashka]

If a person is downloading songs in the first place, how do they honestly expect her to pay that ridiculous fine?

yeah, seriously. if she can't afford to pay 99 cents for one song, there's no way she's going to just dish out over a million dollars for 24. i smiled when she said "there's no way they're ever going to get that." because they aren't. unless she hits it big or something, which is pretty much impossible for a regular, middle-aged mom.
maybe she'll start adopting a bunch of kids so she can be the next octo-mom, and earn fame/cash that way. :|

and yeah, it's stupid how the music industry acts like they don't already make millions of dollars as it is. it's not like 24 songs is going to break them.

 

[cascade88]

Part of me thinks the fine is so big solely to make a point out of the situation, you know? Like SEE WHAT HAPPENS, KIDS! or something. >_>

Because yeah, that fine is ridiculous.

 

[Nekusagi]

Ah sites like 4shared correct? Cause I stopped my p2p downloading in February.

Yep. Not only that, downloading music over a torrent/p2p is impractical- I torrented some Jpop discographies (Kana, Ali Project, and TM Revolution- all pretty large, with Alipro being the biggest) a while back simply because I was too lazy to dig around for them on DDL and it took 4-5 hours each. Conversely, last week I DLed an entire ABBA discography (seven or eight albums, some as big as 300MB) off Megaupload links in under a half hour.

It boggles the brain as to why people (like my brother) insist on Limewire and torrents when DDLs are infinitely superior in every way.

Part of me thinks the fine is so big solely to make a point out of the situation, you know? Like SEE WHAT HAPPENS, KIDS! or something. >_>

Because yeah, that fine is ridiculous.

This pretty much IS just scare tactics.

I read the thread on this over at ontd_political on LJ. Someone pointed out this is only going to make people even MORE pissed at the RIAA and cause them to illegally download more.

 

[Sparrow]

I think I'm gonna download some music in protest. ;D

 

[Nekusagi]

ROW ROW

FIGHT THE POWAH

 

[I Started A Cult]

As if what the record industry did to John Oswald, and V/vm Test, and Negativland, and Spasticated Records Australia, and, well, you get the point, wasn't bad enough...

 

[Insanish Danish]

Okay, yeah, this is really ridiculous. $80,000? Jesus Christ.