Huge fine for music file-sharer

[adultwebmaster]

OUCH! !bobby!

A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (?109,000) in damages for illegally file-sharing music.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7029229.stm

Blue

[Deuce Bigolo]

Its been coming although i must admit i thought the record companies were targetting the main sharers
(guy in sydney was done for sharing 12,000 songs)

Huge fine for music file-sharer

Jammie Thomas was said to have shared more than 1,700 songs
A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (?109,000) in damages for illegally file-sharing music.
The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 32, from Minnesota, to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online - a cost of $9,250 per song.

But the fine could have been millions, as record companies said she illegally shared a total of 1,702 songs.

Ms Thomas was the first person accused of illegal file-sharing who decided to fight the case in court.

Each year millions of households illegally share music files, and the music industry takes it as a serious threat to its revenue.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying a fine amounting to a few thousand dollars.

Industry defiant

However, contesting the charge and losing will cost Jammie Thomas almost a quarter of a million dollars.


Thomas denied using Kazaa to share copyrighted material
Her lawyer, Brian Toder, told the Associated Press Ms Thomas was reduced to tears by the verdict.

"This is a girl that lives from paycheque to paycheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheque garnished for the rest of her life," he said.

The US record industry said people would understand the verdict.

Richard Gabriel, a lawyer for the music companies, said the verdict was important.

"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK," he told AP.

He said no decision had yet been made about what the record companies would do, if anything, to pursue collecting the money from Ms Thomas.

[Deuce Bigolo]

You got to wonder how someone who,lives pay cheque to pay cheque
can afford to fight a court battle?

I'd say she's made 1 mistake,she took the case to court

[colonel]

mucho_matcho_man wrote:

> "The US record industry said people would understand the
> verdict."
>
> Only those living in cloud cuckoo land. The US justice system
> always throws up these wacky sentences, which are quite often
> quashed on appeal.

Though not for thousands of cases of intellectual copyright theft, and when the plaintiff has offered to settle out of court.

[Deuce Bigolo]

Would love to know which 24 songs were so valuable

$9,250 per song seems over the top

I've always wondered what it is that pushes people to share online what they most likely wouldn't face to face with a stranger

Think I be sticking to
At least it gives you the option to share or not unlike other p2p programs

[adultwebmaster]

Deuce Bigolo wrote:

> Would love to know which 24 songs were so valuable


There are rumours that some of these gems were on her harddrive

Crazy Frog - Axel F
Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract
Blind Melon - No Rain
Aqua - Barbie Girl
Los Del Rio ? Macarena
The Tweets ? The Birdie Song
Boney M - Brown Girl in the Ring
John Denver - Take Me Home Country Roads
Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting
Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart
Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy

.....and you all thought that she'd just received a criminal record

Blue

[Deuce Bigolo]

Thats only 12

dare you name the rest?

So one would assume the other 1702 - 24 = 1678 songs were A Class Classics which don't make the record company didley squat money wise