Duluth jury decides Brainerd woman must pay $222,000 for downloaded music files
A 12-person jury in Duluth ruled Jammie Thomas, 30, of Brainerd, did pirate 24 copyrighted sound recordings, and ordered her to pay $222,000.
The ruling could set precedent, determining what proof is needed to find someone liable for copyright infringement.
The verdict ended three days of testimony and questioning in U.S. District Court in Duluth against Thomas, a single mother of two who was accused of downloading and sharing certain music files. Six recording companies sought damages that could have reached millions of dollars.
Here is an interesting analysis on how and why this happened. But even from the RIAA’s viewpoint, was it really worth it?
Send all your love directly to the RIAA and tell them what you think.
Remember folks, turn OFF the upload feature in your P-2-P or BitTorrent software.
Leeching is legal, sharing is not.
Appeal!
Also, I feel sorry for this mom, but, she clearly knew what she was getting into.
The odds were never in her favor.
“Jammie”?
Too bad the girl in the pic isn’t really Jammie (see http://tinyurl.com/2m4tqe for further details). I’d pay off her fines AND get her all the music she could listen to.
And “Mme Thomas est la première de 26 000 personnes poursuivies par l’industrie “???. Jeez. If they can get $222K from all 26,000 perps, that’s almost six billion bucks.
I’d like to know why they’re entitled to $10,000 per song. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the analogy of “theft = copyright violation”, If someone stole $25 from me (the real purchase value of the songs), would I be eligible for $200,000 in repayment? No, in this case the record companies deserve repayment of $25.
Now come back to reality. We know that theft != copyright violation. In fact, violating copyright on 25 songs causes less financial damage than stealing $25 in tangible property. Maybe they deserve $12 or $15.
Surely she can just declare bankruptcy and that is that….
If the idiots sharing would take just a few precautions they would never get caught. I see that almost every case is some computer illiterate being foolish and getting caught
Let’s see, if a song is 99 cents on iTunes, and she was fined $220,000 for lost revenues, then that means that there were 220,000 songs downloaded from her computer.
Nice bandwidth.
Your IP address, when reported by tools like:
http://www.ip-adress.com/
should not show the address that your ISP gave you. Notice that it even shows the city that you are in.
Now you can see how absolutely important it is to batten down the hatches on your wireless security. If someone else shares files over your network, it will still be traced to your IP address and modem identifier, which is the same for anyone logged onto your home network through your wireless router. That was the level of proof on which the jury convicted Jammie, although wearing an eye patch to the trial probably didn’t help (just kidding).
Eye patch?
Ah, it takes some effort but i see it now.
#5, I think she’s not just paying for her own theft, but every theoretical theft from her “sharing.”
Too bad this trial was wasted. Sounds like she was guilty and there was a lot of evidence against her. Her lawyer was stupid to let it go this far. She should have paid the ransom at the begining and been done with it.
The RIAA feeding frenzy will continue until they lose this big in court.
Great. Thanks for this one:
A handy tool for me
13–That was fun. They missed me by over a mile!!
8–I thought I read the damages were “statutory” and related to simply making the files available for sharing–ie, not based on how many times it was copied by others if at all. But your calculation does show “the hammer” the RIAA got congress to pass.
7–What precautions are those?
I wonder what makes this violation subject to prison time? (-if?)
#14
Precautions like having your computer show up under a different ISP and location than you really are. My report shows me in Dallas (half a country away), and the ISP is not one that I’m using. That’s for ALL my Internet connectivity. And the traffic between me and the other guy is encrypted and using standard ports, no suspicious ports.
Could they track me down… sure… there is always a way… but it sure beats crying out “Look at me! This is where I am, who may carrier is, and my IP address”
It does make things slower, but not $220,000 worth of slower.
And one BIG rule. Turn off wireless in your house unless you are actually using it. No wireless, no poaching worries.
#14 Great site! They got me right on the button – Currently I am in Istanbul (business trip) next stop is New Delhi then back to China so I’ll check my ISP addresses on the way and see how accurate it is.
Off topic – Istanbul was not at all what I thought it was, its very European. My Turkish distributor said that movie Midnight Express screwed up Turkey’s image. Our hotel is in the SOHO area of Istanbul and about 30 choppers roared in. All I could think of was American Chopper! There was some nice machines. (Gas / Petrol goes for about $10 a gallon here)
I hope I can get over to Iran one day for a first hand look see. From what I been told it is not at all like the image the media portrays. The few Iranian business people I have spoke to all have said that many Iranians like Americans, its just the government they don’t like. The same goes for Israel. Oh well…
Cheers
Yeah if you’re caught stealing you just have to pay the regular price and off you go. That’ll discourage stealing.
#16 – My Turkish distributor said that movie Midnight Express screwed up Turkey’s image.
Well, Midnight Express was made in 1978… It is possible that it used to be a little more accurate than it is now…
I love Midnight Express, and it is far better than the remake… Brokedown Palace (although Claire Danes is smokin’ hot)
The RIAA won’t be happy until everything we listen to is pay-per-play.
I’m still looking for a way that actually works (=not crash my router) to mask or change my IP when using P2P.
#18 – You’re right. Turkey is a far cry from then – but these things persist don’t they? Like “Red China” – Mao and the like.
Also I don’t know how many times Chinese have asked me if there are still ‘White only’ areas in the US. I was there when a Chinese person asked an American black man what he thinks of being an ex-slave.
Cheers