Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 19, 7:08 am ET
MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.

A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.

Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.

Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.

"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.



Read the full story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading

Maybe I will start charging for my songs. All it takes is one illegal download of one of your songs and you may hit paydirt.

I would not feel good about suing someone for illegally dwnlding one of my songs. To me, it would be flattering to have them like my stuff enough to want it.
That is some serious $$ though.

This is one of the only cases that actually made it to trial. It says that they have had 35,000 cases that have settled for between $3000 and $5000. This can only make the record companies look bad. They are finally investing in services where people can basically do the same thing legally like Rhapsody and eMusic.

Scary stuff!

Dave