View Full Version : US: Woman fined $220,000 for downloaing 24 songs
Dub13
05-10-2007, 02:04 PM
Looks like the music company's are upping the anti....
An American woman has become the first person to be convicted of illegally downloading music and fined $220,000 (€156,000).
Although the music industry has threatened others with prosecution all have settled before going to court.
But Jammie Thomas ,30, decided she would take them on and maintained she did nothing wrong.
After the verdict she was in shock. Although she has little money she faces having a legal order imposed that would deduct a quarter of her salary until the fine is paid.
“She was in tears. She’s devastated,” her lawyer Brian Toder said following the verdict in Duluth, Minnesota.
“This is a girl that lives from paycheck to paycheck.”
The jury ordered her to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 (£6,600) for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. She was accused of sharing 1,702 songs using the Kazaa software, infringing their copyright.
Richard Gabriel, lawyer for the music companies, said, “This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK.”
He said no decision had yet been made about what the record companies – Sony, Arista, Interscope Records, UMG, Capitol and Warner Bros – would do about collecting the money from Thomas.
Record companies have filed 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 over file-sharing, which has hurt sales because it allows people to get music for free instead of paying for recordings in stores.
Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars.
Before the verdict, an official with an industry trade group said he was surprised it had taken so long for one of the industry’s lawsuits against individual downloaders to reach trial.
Link (http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhmhauqlidsn/)
Ligger
05-10-2007, 02:09 PM
Ouch thats gonna hurt. Bit unfair to pick on one poor person rather than the priates who are making money forging CDs, DVDs, etc.
Pimboli
05-10-2007, 02:48 PM
Ouch thats gonna hurt. Bit unfair to pick on one poor person rather than the priates who are making money forging CDs, DVDs, etc.
I have to agree its shocking that they went after a little person.
In fairness of you go on to sites like isohunt or mininova to download albums I think it would be very hard to track people doing the ripping down so she must have been a bit of a pleb to begin with to be caught.
If you have heard of Axxo (google him) he rips and posts every single new movie released on dvd for download from the states yet its a woman like this who gets screwed.
I dont think this is going to send the message the companies hoped, if anything it will have the opposite effect with people more determined to stick it to these companies.
Aido82
05-10-2007, 02:59 PM
Alot of money that is
ha ha stupid her. anyone that uses kazza or bearshare deserves to get caught
megager
05-10-2007, 04:52 PM
that disgraceful. More proof that all record companies are scum bags. Id love to know waht redord companies they are as I would boycott them all.
The poor woman
This was obviously the test case in this area, and unfortunately she will go down in legal history for setting the precedent in this area...its significance clearly lies in the huge discretion the judiciary will have concerning damages...
Dub13
06-10-2007, 09:48 AM
A bit more info here....
Link (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/05/riaa_wins_first_music_sharing_jury_trial/)
Dub13
08-10-2007, 01:45 PM
Some more info about the poor woman...
The first person to be convicted of illegally downloading music said today she was “devastated” after being fined more than £100,000 (€142,733).
Jammie Thomas insisted she was innocent and said she took on the music industry because she would not be “bullied” into settling before the case reached court.
She was fined $220,000 (€156,135) and although she has little money she faces having a legal order imposed that would deduct a quarter of her salary until the fine is paid.
In her first interview since her conviction last week, Ms Thomas, 30, told CNN’s American Morning: “I was actually pretty devastated when I heard the amount.
“I don’t know anybody out there who wouldn’t be devastated being told you have to pay that much money for something you didn’t do.”
Asked why she didn’t accept an offer to settle out of court earlier, she said: “I didn’t do this and I was not going to be bullied by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) or anyone else.”
The court heard the IP address assigned to Thomas was used to download songs using Kazaa software with the username Thereastar, which she had used for the last 13 years.
She told CNN’s American Morning that someone stole that identity.
Thomas admitted she had all the songs which were shared but insisted she had never had an account with Kazaa.
“I’ve never used any file sharing, except for Napster. I used Napster in college to do a business study. And that’s the only file sharing I’ve ever used.”
Thomas’s lawyer Brian Toder told the programme: “Well the record companies are pretty giddy right now because of what they see as a victory, but really they open the door to an appeal which may stop this whole machine of theirs dead in its tracks.
“There was an issue as to whether or not simply offering these recordings was in itself an infringement versus an actual sharing, and that issue’s never been squarely addressed by a court of appeals.
“And we certainly plan to do something about that. And if we prevail on that, this whole harvesting that they do, client by client, is gone.”
The jury at the court in Duluth, Minnesota, ordered her to pay the six record companies that sued her – Sony, Arista, Interscope Records, UMG, Capitol and Warner Bros – 9,250 dollars (£4,500) for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case.
She was accused of sharing 1,702 songs using the Kazaa software, infringing their copyright.
Record companies have filed 26,000 lawsuits since 2003 over file-sharing, which has hurt sales because it allows people to get music for free instead of paying for recordings in stores.
Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars.
Pimboli
08-10-2007, 02:01 PM
Some more info about the poor woman...
Come on if her IP address was used and she admitted she had all the songs in question is anyone going to believe the 'somebody else stole my identity' theory.
Thats some story. Like a fellow poster commented, its well unfair that they go for some poor young woman like this instead of targeting those who make huge amounts of cash from dl free music. I guess though that this is a story that really hits home to the average internet user at home and is more likely to make them stand up and take notice.
Thats some story. Like a fellow poster commented, its well unfair that they go for some poor young woman like this instead of targeting those who make huge amounts of cash from dl free music. I guess though that this is a story that really hits home to the average internet user at home and is more likely to make them stand up and take notice.
If a huge company filed a lawsuit like that against me, i'd have said anything to get out of it...lets face it, her life has taken a complete downturn now...
James
15-10-2007, 02:46 PM
If a huge company filed a lawsuit like that against me, i'd have said anything to get out of it...lets face it, her life has taken a complete downturn now...
Shes famous now (or infamous) so she can turn this on its head and make money out of it. Appeal, get a publicist and write a book. If she loses the money from a book will pay her fees and if she wins shes a cyber legend!
carragherisgod
16-10-2007, 08:32 AM
Aw come on. poor woman? Sharing 1700 songs and she "didn't do it"? What kind of rubbish is that? If somebody stole her ID that doesn't explain how the downloads were traced to her as IP is specific to every internet connection. If she just used this (http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/) she may have even got away with it.
Aido82
16-10-2007, 05:06 PM
iv heard of pg2 does it actually work though
carragherisgod
17-10-2007, 09:49 AM
It does. Very well. I don't have an illegal downloads on my PC but I use Peergaurdian because I don't like the idea of these record companies or who ever it is does the tracking invading my privacy.
rampant hair
17-10-2007, 01:12 PM
do u not find it slows your pc down?
do u not find it slows your pc down?
I don't find any noticable difference tbh, and even if it did slow it down some bit I'd settle for that rather than having the corporate world spying on my laptop!
mickeycorr
21-10-2007, 04:20 PM
Jesus thats a lot of money. Hope the songs were worth it. Will have to get that Peergaurdian thing cos i do use bearshare a bit:o
carragherisgod
22-10-2007, 08:50 AM
do u not find it slows your pc down?
Nah not at all. It has a very small fingerprint.
Liverpool-law
23-10-2007, 04:13 PM
Some of the stuff she downloaded was Gloria Estefan and Janet Jackson... she deserved every cent of that fine!:D
carragherisgod
23-10-2007, 04:46 PM
Some of the stuff she downloaded was Gloria Estefan and Janet Jackson... she deserved every cent of that fine!:D
LMFAO!!!!!!
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