Posted October 8, 200717 yr 24 illegal song downloads cost US woman $220,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHICAGO (AFP) - In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered Thursday to pay 220,000 dollars 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 thousands 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 60,000 dollars 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 9,250-dollar 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 150,000 dollars a song if the jury had found "willful" copyright infringement. Had the record companies sued her for all 1,702 songs found in the online folder the fine could have run in the millions. source: yahoo
October 8, 200717 yr I f***ing hate the RIAA. Selfish bast*rds only care about the money they're making off of other's work. =/ The ammount they charge for one effing son is ridiculous. -_- Gotta be more careful when you download from Limewire/Kazaa though. She probably didn't realize that everytime she downloaded a song, it was being uploaded. Edited October 8, 200717 yr by Medicatedsoap
October 8, 200717 yr I think it's ridiculous how they sue these random people for downloading a few tracks yet they don't seem to do anything to these MASSIVE blogs that are sharing thousands of files everyday.
October 8, 200717 yr Oh dear, she obviously forgot to install an IP Blocker like Peer Guardian..... :( And, as soon as the things downloaded, she should've made sure they didn't seed by deleting them off her bit torrent client.....
October 11, 200717 yr $220,000?!?!?! Thats an awful amount. Too right, 24 songs, that's like, what...? Two albums worth....? Bang out of order....
October 14, 200717 yr I think that's insane. They shouldn't go after the individuals if they don't like it, they should go after Kazaa or whatever to shut them down.
October 15, 200717 yr Author I think that's insane. They shouldn't go after the individuals if they don't like it, they should go after Kazaa or whatever to shut them down. They can't. Before you download limewire, bearshare, Kazaa, or any other file sharing site you have to agree to not sell the files for profit.
Create an account or sign in to comment