Download 24 Songs & Pay $1.9 Million


In case your teenager(s) favorite pastime is downloading the latest hit record(s) to their iPod you may be interested to know that a federal jury has found a Minnesota woman guilty of downloading 24 songs from the internet without paying for the download.

The judgment against her is for $1.9 million or $80,000 per song. This is the first copyright infringement case of its kind to go to trial. The songs were priced at .99 cents each on the net. Unless you have a spare million or two it might be a good idea to advise the kids.
commcat
I should have said that he would download songs and then upload them for others to use. Are you saying that many music companies are having emails sent to people that they find are uploading music in an effort to get them to stop?
You dont get "in trouble" for downloading...they bust you for uploading. The music/video Co. cant afford to sue like they did 10 years ago when they were trying to make a "point". Their lawyers were the only ones getting rich. Now they hire independent Co.'s that find out who is uploading/downloading and send emails to ISP's who own their address ranges...force the ISP's to send emails to their customers to stop doing it...and state that if they dont they will be dropped. I'm sure someone somewhere is scared.
My ex's brother used to download music for free all the time without paying. I used to warn him about the potential to get into trouble. After awhile, he did stop downloading for free.
I am not sure using the term 'customers' is the right word to describe people getting an artist/s' track/s illegally for free when one can pay a paltry 99c and legally own a copy.
I have yet to see any music store giving their cd's away for free. I am surprised the jurors did not throw the kitchen sink as well as the book at her and fined her $150,000 per song like they could have. I mean why stop at $80,000?? It is a bit silly and pointless in imposing an amount probably unobtainable and unpayable unless a huge lottery win happens to go her way.
Here is the link to the information:

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/e/1403/06-19-2009/20090619092002_18.html
Did she upload or download? I don't think the law allows awarding 80,000 times the actual damages.
Misinformation. There never has nor ever will be liability for downloading. She was file sharing on Kazaa, of course. It amazes me that an industry believes that it is taking a credible and appropriate course of action by suing their own customers. Idiots.
All digital terrorists should be sent to Guantanamo Bay and be forced to a 24/7 diet of Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, and Kenny G.

Now that's punishment.
it'll get overturned. It's a hopeless battle, once music is turned into 0's and 1's how do you copyright that, it's like copyrighting the color blue. The industry should have stayed with vinyl.
my opinionated, uninformed 2 cents.
Finally! $ 1,9 mill is all that was missing to cover my annual bonus!

{I work for the music industry, I'm a successful top executive -- as evidenced by the spectacular growth in my industry and the profits generated.}
On 2nd thought, maybe $ 0,99 isn't that bad. Expressed in Euro (0,70) it's even better.