Woman fined $1.9 million for illegal downloads

CNN.com ^ | 2009-06-18 | Elianne Friend

[dayglored]

A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each — a total of $1.9 million — for 24 songs.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said.

Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents...

[dayglored]

No comment, I can't get words out, only curses.

Sure, she was probably guilty as hell of file sharing. But $80,000 per song???

I'm sure she plans to appeal... but still...

[devane617]

I am convinced all the folks in Minnesota are all brain damaged.

[dayglored]

Tech pings? Maybe a Mac ping, what the hey....

[RobRoy]

Looks like the penalty for downloading a single song is worse than for armed robbery.

I wonder what they charge there for California stops.

[SIDENET]

I thought that the recording industry had stopped going after downloaders.

I'm guessing that this case was filed before that happened.

[dayglored]

> I thought that the recording industry had stopped going after downloaders. I'm guessing that this case was filed before that happened.

They're still going after them. But yeah, this is actually a second attempt to get her -- this one's been going on for awhile, it's not new.

[pray4liberty]

Terrible. This is not justice. Justice would be to make her pay for the songs and sign an agreement not to do it again. Then if she violates that then assess fines. This is ridiculous.

[coconutt2000]

Looks like the penalty for downloading a single song is worse than for armed robbery.

Or manslaughter...

[dayglored]

> Looks like the penalty for downloading a single song is worse than for armed robbery.

Just you wait.... Hollywood and the record companies have been waiting for this moment. All hell's gonna break loose now.

Better turn off the Kazaa and BitTorrent settings....

[LiberConservative]

And what will 0bama and the ‘Rats get for stealing trillions from us, our children, our grand children and great-grandchildren? Probably re-election in 2012.

[Always Right]

I am convinced all the folks in Minnesota are all brain damaged.

They were probably just following the letter of the law of federal law which was written by the record lobby.

[pray4liberty]

I thought that the recording industry had stopped going after downloaders.

Boy am I glad I can buy through Amazon and ITunes...and if the music isn't available, I can get the used CDs on the cheap.

[DuncanWaring]

She should have said they were “undocumented downloads”.

[taxtruth]

No comment.I’m in the same biz.

[mefistofelerevised]

Quess she should have paid .99 per song. She shouldn’t have her life ruined because of this. A little too nazi for me. It will probably be thrown out, but will cost her big bucks for attorneys.

[cookiedough]

The first one or two were undocumented. The rest were anchor babies.

[dayglored]

> Terrible. This is not justice.... This is ridiculous.

The RIAA is trying to make up for years of stupidity (on their own part) for not recognizing a decade ago that the business model had to change.

Damn parasites, they sit between the creative artists and the eager listeners, reaping windfall after windfall for years with overpriced CDs, and they bitch when it falls apart.... they COULD have responded reasonably years ago, but now all they can do is squeeze anybody they catch.

Don'tcha know, their coke spoons are getting tarnished... they have to make their middleman cut...

[South40]

If she were black the false prophet Obama might pardon her. But since she's not she's screwed.

[Navy Patriot]

They were probably just following the letter of the law of federal law which was written by the record lobby.

Ignorant jurors.

[CaptRon]

This fine is ridiculous. I wrote a book 30 years ago; a local history which had ties to a major event in Amrerican history. I have been thinking (and have the research) to write an historical novel based on that research. When I read these stories I wonder what I would do if someone stole my intellectual propoerty (in fact, the only reason I haven’t written it is I don’t know HOW to protect my idea because I cannot write it my self!)