Must Pay $222,000 For Illegal Downloads

[Jazzy]

A Minnesota woman at the center of a long-running court fight over the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music said there's still no way she can pay record companies the $222,000 judgment she owes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal Monday.



The justices did not comment on their decision. Attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset, of Brainerd, argued the amount was excessive.



The music industry filed thousands of lawsuits in the early to mid-2000s against people it accused of downloading music without permission and without paying for it. Almost all the cases settled for about $3,500 apiece. Thomas-Rasset is one of only two defendants who refused to pay and went to trial. The other was former Boston University student Nebulousl Tenenbaum, who also lost and was ordered to pay $675,000.



The industry initially sued Thomas-Rasset in 2006. Since then, her case has gone through three trials and several appeals. The industry presented evidence that Thomas-Rasset made available over 1,700 songs to other computer uses via the file-sharing service Kazaa, though the lawsuit targeted only 24 songs.



I'm assuming that since they declined to hear the case it's probably done at this point, she said. But she also said she needed to consult with her attorneys to determine what happens next.



Thomas-Rasset, 35, who works for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe tribal government, maintained – as she has all along – that she can't afford to pay.

Full article



You steal and you pay the price.

 

[seasidemike]

Bullshit.. the music industry is a dinosaur the way they are dealing with this and cannot stop the wave of technology they are trying so pathetically to fight.



They need to revolutionize their business model.. they should be putting their energy into new ways of generating income instead of chasing people for money they do not have.

 

[Bluezone777]

What songs could possibly be worth a fine of 200+ thousand dollars? I am all for doling out punishment for crime but let's be real here as the punishment hardly fits the crime.



Even 3500 dollars is unbelievably ridiculous considering you don't see speeding tickets that high even if those crimes can easily show how they could cause death yet we slap on thousands upon thousands of dollars for the crime of downloading some music which has caused no deaths at all.



What lessons are taught from bankrupting a person and with it their family over something that by comparison seems rather trivial?

 

[Evil Eye]

What lessons are taught from bankrupting a person and with it their family over something that by comparison seems rather trivial?

Probably something along the lines of if you're going to download, you might as well download a lot, because you won't be able to afford the fine anyway.

 

[Jazzy]

This is not about downloading copyrighted music. If she had done just that and not this:

The industry presented evidence that Thomas-Rasset made available over 1,700 songs to other computer uses via the file-sharing service Kazaa

She probably would have gotten away with it.

 

[Sinon]

Here's an idea. You always hear about lawsuits, cases and such where drug users are imprisoned, and everyone bitches about how they should punish the dealer and not the user, right?



Why not do the same with piracy? Don't punish the person downloading it, punish the person putting it up for download.



Attacking the person who downloaded it won't stop the files being downloaded; they already have the stuff saved somewhere, and if they're anything like me they have a backup somewhere, in case of hard drive failure or something. It's the technological equivalent of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

This is not about downloading copyrighted music. If she had done just that and not this:



She probably would have gotten away with it.

In my opinion that’s the most damning piece of evidence. When you share files, you make it so much easier on the record companies to track you and bring a claim against you. It's like piracy at movie theatres. They’re not going to catch every person illegally recording movies, but I guarantee you they’re more like to catch the people bootlegging it.





I don’t really agree with the punishment either, but I see where Jazzy is coming from. Like anything else, taking something without paying for it and without permission is still stealing.

 

[Jazzy]

Not to mention that she was offered a 5k deal to settle this and turned it down.