|  | | RIAA Wins $1.92 Million in Thomas Retrial Case | 
A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial ended the same as the first, with a Minnesota woman found to have violated music copyrights and ordered to pay hefty 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.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions. Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read. Outside the courtroom, she was resigned.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her. Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Read the entire article at WCCO. | | 18 Comments | | | $1.92m? Scumbags. The RIAA should be decleared as a terrorist organization. |
Last edited by Regeneration; June 19th, 2009 at 01:34 AM..
| Quote | | | | | pathetic, thats the US justice system for you, only in place to protect the crimals and screw the innocent, and 1.9 million? for what? did they just pull a random number out of their ass? or is this how much they got paid for that verdict?
Where is this poor women every even going to get a fraction of that money? and 80k per son? so did they figure each song was downloaded 80,000 times?
A persons life has just bee ruined over 24 worthless songs |
Last edited by blindartist; June 19th, 2009 at 06:27 AM..
| Quote | | | | | Why don't they have her pay the $24 ($0.99 x 24 Songs) and a $150 fine and move on? Where has true justice in America gone? Where did they find the people on this federal jury... Los Angeles? | | | | I dont think Ive seen anything more ridiculous. How much would 24 songs cost to download off itunes? bout 18 dollars. The american "justice system" seems to have taken leave of reality. The reason why record companies sales are down 10% is because of the crap they keep churning out. Miley Cyrus? Jonas Brothers? Justin F.....g Timberlake? Give me a break.
They seem to forget that the over 30s audience spend more money on music than teens. Why are the biggest concert acts still The Rolling Stones,U2. The bands that have been doing it for years? Because unlike the current trends, they are GOOD. Why dont the record companies listen to people? Hope they continue to lose money.Pricks | | | | Not sure who is more at fault, Justice system or RIAA. If RIAA spent time and money protecting copy rights this would never have to end up in an court. How would she of been sure that she was voilating a copy right? Did the download pop-up saying copy write would be violated? It could of been another artist that sounds familar, and not copy write thier material. I think if cosumers just stopped buying music products for 1-6 months the Music industry working with RIAA would change thier out-look. | | | | Now the RIAA will lose $1.92 million from people freshly motivated to stick it to the RIAA and pirate their songs instead of buy them, or boycott them altogether. | | | | Wow... A modern day Jean Valjean. Might as well throw her in jail too for stealing some bread. I think I'll throw in my support for the new political party called "The Pirate Party". Somebody actually sticking up for our rights for a change. | | | | Justice system in America is only for the rich. I hope they are happy about ruining the lives of a poor mother and her 4 kids. | | | | A disgrace. I thought a broken justice system was only in the UK, I was wrong. She's being fined far more than most real finance criminals. | | | | After today only an idiot would ever buy music again. | | | | How do they expect her to pay $1,900,000.00 USD if she can’t afford to buy the CDs? Let’s see just how much this doesn’t make sense. 24 individual tracks may equate at maximum to 24 individual different CDs bought at retail value for around $20.00 a piece equals $480.00. Note the difference: $1,900,000.00 - $480.00 = $1,899,520.00. On the low end she could of bought each song for 0.99 cents on the internet for her ipod that is assuming she has one for $23.79. This isn’t justice it’s an injustice done by the pricks of the RIAA. I guess she’ll pay you in camel cash or monopoly money. Doesn't this make you want to not pay for music ever? | | | | Even corporations whom broke copyright laws never had to pay 2m. We are talking about individual and low-value copyrighted material. Novalogic was fined $153,500 by BSA after they found pirated copies of software from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, FileMaker, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec in their computers. Apparently, mothers are making money then corporations in the US. | | | | just record music off the radio & cut your own disc. If it is over radio you can record it for free. as long as you don't sell it. never go buy a cd again! greedy bastards. Tell everyone you know to do this | | | | THE JURY AND JUDGES ARE IN THE RIAA'S POCKETS.
the only people who can try these cases are the international courts! | | | | WHAT... THE... FUCK...
Don't they fine less in wrongful death lawsuits? I mean, Jesus fucking Christ! | | | | Lol after they got so called fined for price fixing for 15 years and had to pay like 1.5 mill or something thats ridiculous. | | | | in a nutshell: the united states government is corrupt on every level, bought and sold by corporate executives...
so what did you expect?!! | | | | What did they achieve with this?
* ruined some innocent lives (even if the woman is a hardcore criminal, her sons haven't been accused and are therefore innocent)
* when people hear this there is zero to none chance they'll stop dl'ing just because RIAA doesn't want them to
* they have given our hatred toward RIAA yet more definition
* the same goes for the music industry
* they have violated civil rights in a new, before unexplored way
What was their goal, increasing crap music sales? lol good work. | |
|
