[Responsibility2nd]

Hoo boy. My kids used Kazaa to download songs. Glad I'm not facing a $40K lawsuit.

[TSgt]

Always turn off sharing and don’t leave the thing online for days on end.

[Gay State Conservative]

If I'm ever on such a jury the only thing I'll vote for is for the downloader to pay the then-current cost of the song plus a one cent punitive award for every song “illegally” down loaded.

[Ingtar]

Teenagers routinely get away with murder because they are “too young.” How is it they are automatically charged as an adult on this lesser crime?

[Gay State Conservative]

Hoo boy. My kids used Kazaa to download songs. Glad I'm not facing a $40K lawsuit.

I work for Crapital Records.What's your name again? ;-)

[La Lydia]

Music industry continues to shoot self in foot.

[Wolfie]

Jeez, it’s not like she stole something, after all.

[Mad Dawgg]

"In 2008, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez found Harper infringed, but said it was up to a jury to decide whether the act was “innocent” — whether she was truly aware that her acts constituted copyright infringement. If the infringement is found to be innocent, that can reduce the amount per song from $750 to $200."

Thank GAWD our court system works so well, also I hope O.J. does someday find that killer!

[Mad Dawgg]

"In 2008, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez found Harper infringed, but said it was up to a jury to decide whether the act was “innocent” — whether she was truly aware that her acts constituted copyright infringement. If the infringement is found to be innocent, that can reduce the amount per song from $750 to $200."

Thank GAWD our court system works so well, also I hope O.J. does someday find that killer!

[bamahead]

ping

[I still care]

My kids were wise and told me they didn’t do Kazaa, but who knows, they may have when they were really young and just clicking around and don’t remember.

I think this is a horrid judgement. The songs cost .99 cents? How can one stop an innocent 14 year old from saying, I’ll download this and then I won’t have to ask mom for the credit card. I’m sure many are unaware it’s illegal.

To ask $700 for a .99 cent song to send a message to a bunch of kids whose only crime is listening to music, that is big time idiotic. I’ll bet kids that go out and steal CDs from cars don’t have that kind of restitution to pay.

Someone stole a box of CDs from my car once, maybe the court should award me 100K.

[svcw]

How about charging her the $0.99 per song if she had paid.
What is the deal with $250 per?

[The Toll]

Good!

This women stole from me. I want an example made of her, and others.

[chuckles]

They need to collect the money so the bands can donate to Obama’s re election campaign.

[ShadowAce]

[Above My Pay Grade]

While the recording industry clearly has legitmate interest in keeping its recordings from being illegally downloaded, it seems to me that the punishment in these cases is far too severe to fit the crime.

If the kid had been caught shoplifting CDs of the same recordings, she’d probably get a slap on the wrist, been required to pay for or return the merchandise and received a small fine. Also, if someone steals 37 CDs they would likely be charged with a single count, not fined for each CD stolen.

What does a song cost on iTunes, about a dollar? So for “stealing” $40 worth of merchandise (in a manner that does not deprive the rightful owner of possession of said merchandise), she gets fined $40,000? This is insane!

[Still Thinking]

Harper was unavailable for comment. Her lawyer, Donald Scott Mackenzie of Dallas, said the total with interest could well exceed $40,000 and force Harper to file for bankruptcy.

I thought judgments weren't bankrupt-able.

[rabscuttle385]

[Lazamataz]

What? No execution?

[the_daug]

I think anyone who owned a vinyl,tape, or CD recording should already have a license for an MP3 version.

[Señor Zorro]

How can anyone believe (RIAA aside—they don’t believe) that $200 or $700 per song is reasonable?

The iTunes/Amazon MP3 cost for these songs would be $1 (okay, $0.99; I’m rounding up the penny). If we assume the worth as a fraction of a CD and estimate a 12 track CD priced at $15, we get $1.25 a song.

Let’s take the higher number of $1.25/song as the worth. The article says that she downloaded 37 songs. If you triple the worth of the song, for punitive damages (and, personally, I think tripling the damage value of anything for punitive damages sounds kind of ridiculous), you get a grand total of: $138.75.

From $140 to $27,750 (the bump up to $40k was with interest). I do not have a problem with copyright per se, but this is certifiably insane.