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Fined $US220,000 for sharing 24 songs
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| Lilith |
October 5, 2007 - 10:27AM
In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered to pay $US220,000 ($247,549) for sharing 24 songs online.
Jammie Thomas, 30, was the first among more than 26,000 people sued by the world's most powerful recording companies to refuse a settlement after being slapped with a lawsuit by the Recording Industry of America and six major music labels.
She turned down an offer to pay a few thousand dollars in fines and instead took the case to court.
Unlike some who insist on the right to share files over the internet, Thomas says she was wrongfully targeted by SafeNet, a contractor employed by the recording industry to patrol the internet for copyrighted material.
Her lawyer said earlier this week that she had racked up some $US60,000 ($67,520) in legal fees because she refused to be bullied.
And while Thomas insisted on the courthouse steps that she had never downloaded or uploaded music, her lawyer tried to convince jurors there was no way to prove who had uploaded songs on the Kazaa file sharing network.
A jury took just five hours to decide that evidence provided by the music labels showed otherwise and found Thomas guilty of copyright infringement, court records showed.
Thomas, an employee of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, an Indian tribe, was ordered to pay a $US9250 ($10,400) fine for each of 24 shared songs cited in the case, including Godsmack's Spiral, Destiny's Child's Bills, Bills, Bills and Sara McLachlan's Building a Mystery.
It could have been a lot worse.
The fine could have reached $US150,000 ($168,700) a song if the jury had found "willful" copyright infringement.
Had the record companies sued her for all 1702 songs found in the online folder the fine could have run in the millions.
AFP
It's a nasty legal precedent that's happening in the US, admittedly theft is theft but you'd probably get less of a smack stealing 24 CD's from a shop or possibly other forms of criminal negligence. I'm sort of guessing at this point the record companies having given up with having any kind of public relations departments... |
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| Akridrot |
| Goddamn, I hate this country. |
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| Pjotr G |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lilith
Thomas (...) was ordered to pay a $US9250 ($10,400) fine for each of 24 shared songs cited in the case, including (...) Destiny's Child's Bills, Bills, Bills (...).
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Pun intended? |
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| Rinster |
| quote: | Originally posted by Pjotr G
Pun intended? |
:stongue: |
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| daves |
had a feeling she'd be toast - there was a lot of good coverage by some places (ars technica for example)
she would have had a good chance if it wasnt for the plaintiffs succeeding in a particular judge's instruction to the jury - that they do not have to see evidence of files transferred, rather only that she was offering them. that was argued down to the last moment but the judge caved to the plaintiffs
note to the wise if you are downloading music... dont use the p2p programs with an actual individual account name... that's in stupid... extra stupid is if you make that the same username that you have as your computer name and the same as your account on
some anti-RIAA site |
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| wizniz |
yeaa.... record companies are ed; especially the riaa. why? they obviously are losing money and arent being proactive in finding new ways to obtain revenue. the face of music is changing and something new is gonna come up overnight and they'll be bid good riddance.
this is just their hand reaching out to grab something as they slip into a pit of antiquity and nothingness.
/music ind rant |
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| mezzir |
god damnit
i was excited the second i heard of the case, and horribly pessimistic the second i saw some of the details of the case
way to go, . you just set a terrible terrible precident in this country, you should be proud! hell even canada went the other way |
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| SuspicionVandit |
perhaps Radiohead will be successful in their promotion ("pay what you think the album is worth")
It's not like she wasn't guilty. Although, being "guilty" for sharing music = :( |
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| Boomer187 |
| quote: | Originally posted by wizniz
arent being proactive in finding new ways to obtain revenue. |
you are joking right? they just nabbed $220,000+ from 1 person, imagine after they take another bunch to court :P
plus who gets their hands on that money? does Destiny's Child get their hand in a part of it? |
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| glass |
| I feel like I'm in pre revolution france sometimes. Kill the rich. |
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| we_R_DNA |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lilith
[COLOR=skyblue]October 5, 2007 - 10:27AM
In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered to pay $US220,000 ($247,549) for sharing 24 songs online.
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That is close to 10,000 per song.
Lets just start making people who share library books pay 10,000 per book. Library of CONGRESS is gonna get pwned, they got like a bunch of books being shared. |
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