living in the age of insanity

RIAA Wins $1.92M from unemployed mother of 4

June 19, 2009
RIAA Wins $1.92 Million Verdict In Music File-Sharing Case
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) could be $1.92 million richer after a federal jury Thursday ruled a Minnesota mother of four who downloaded 24 songs violated music copyrights.

The massive verdict in the nation's only filing-sharing case to go to trial, found Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, "committed willful violation" of the copyrights. The verdict was to the tune of $80,000 for each of the 24 songs Thomas-Rasset downloaded from the Kazaa file-sharing network. Among the downloaded songs were tunes by popular acts like Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow and Green Day.

$80,000 a song? Two years worth of salary for one stupid song copied over the Internet?

Under the Copyright Act, juries can award up to $150,000 per illegally downloaded track, though roughly $3,500 was the average payment in the majority of RIAA cases that were settled out of court.

let's see… I know a person with around 4,000 music files downloaded in the years 1995 to 2009. The person then owes the RIAA approximately:

$150,000 x 4000 = $600,000,000




Makes me want to drink a damn Pepsi and say, "forget about it!"