Woman Ordered to Pay $222,000 in File-Sharing Case

[Stout1]

Tweethttps://abcnews.go.com/Technology/sto...3691170&page=1

By ASHLEY PHILLIPS
Oct. 4, 2007

var addthis_pub = 'abcnews';
In the first lawsuit over file sharing to make it to court, a jury ordered a woman who record labels claimed illegally shared songs to pay the labels $222,000.


The lawsuit, filed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the record label lobbying organization, accused Jammie Thomas of sharing more than 1,700 songs on the now defunct peer-to-peer file sharing network Kazaa. The suit contended that Thomas violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by distributing songs for free that belonged to the record labels.
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"We welcome the jury's decision," the RIAA said in an e-mailed statement following the decision. "The law here is clear, as are the consequences for breaking it. As with all our cases, we seek to resolve them quickly in a fair and reasonable manner.



"When the evidence is clear, we will continue to bring legal actions against those individuals who have broken the law," the statement continued. "This program is important to securing a level playing field for legal online music services and helping ensure that record companies are able to invest in new bands of tomorrow."
According to attorneys at Fish & Richardson, a law firm that specializes in intellectual property law, the verdict was a decisive win for the RIAA.


"The RIAA's got a strong track record. Now, people are going to settle faster. The RIAA has won a substantial victory," said Mark Fischer, a principal in the firm. "One of their biggest challenges has been to go after consumers. [That] has been validated by a jury. At this moment, it has seen a real validation of its enforcement."
Despite the win, Fischer acknowledged that the enforcement effort has been viewed as controversial by some.
"You're going after your consumer base," he said.
Fischer's colleague David Chidekel, also a principal at the firm, agreed.


"Under the act, all the things that the RIAA is taking the position on are absolutely justifiable under the copyright law," Chidekel said. "Some people say that the copyright law is antiquated for what happens in the real world. Other people say, 'What are you talking about? The real world is when you rushed out all the CDs to make money. You purposely decided not to encrypt them.'"

[Klash]

TweetDamn!!

[daved150]

Tweetwow...that blows!!! i'd be soooo fuked!!!

[horsepwr]

Tweetoh that would be bad. 1,700 songs. That's $130 a song. Damn that's steep. That's why ya get the songs ya want and get out of those sites,lol.

Damn that sucks for her. She should have incorporated, lol...and got a better lawyer. Time to start the appeals.

[kite]

TweetWhat a crock

[T-Man007]

TweetHere's the way it's works....you don't get in trouble for actually downloading, you get in trouble for sharing the files. In other words, when you go to Limewire and download a song, the song is stored in your share file. So, anytime you are on Limewire someone looking for that song can upload it from you. That's when you get in trouble. Everytime someone uploads a song is another file shared by you. That's where the trouble is. There were two girls here in Colorado that settled our of court and the news did a huge story on it. Basically they said, if the girls would have downloaded the songs and then deleted them from the share file and not let anyone upload the songs, they would have neve gotten in trouble. So, everytime I download something, I move it to another computer and then delete the files. I also don't stay on there very long. I get a handful of songs and then log off. If your IP is constantly sharign files, they will come after you. But, if it's a few here and there, they will look for bigger fish. I usually get songe about every few months. I'll hear songs on the radio and write down the name of it and I'll also try to go and listen to samples of songs of bands I like online. When I've complied the list I want, I go get them and then log off.

[horsepwr]

Tweetexactly...Get what you came for and log out. Create a different folder and move them out of the shared folder. I don't think I've ever had more than 20 files/songs in my shared folder at once. There are people that have nothing better to do and probably even find music to upload to these sites. They're just asking for trouble. I appreciate their clean clear file sharing though, lol.

[O2BESOHUGE]

TweetTHATS WHY YOU JUST DOWNLOAD THEN DONT SHARE AT ALL

[daved150]

Tweetme too^

[3Vandoo]

Tweetits BS

boycott these assholes!!!!!!!!!!!!

[3Vandoo]

Tweetseriously, boycott them!!!!

I cannot stand how ridiculous a CD's price is, and when I see these wannabes jetsetters on the news or in the streets with their attitudes, doing and so on, they are not respecting the people who pays money to hear their crap. I think it might be time some people tell them to go **** themselves and no more we're gonna help them buy their mansion, luxury cars and so on. They apport nothing to society, except bad influences!!!

boycott

[BIGGER THAN YOU]

Tweetholy crap thats alot of coin!!

[horsepwr]

TweetI hear ya Vandoo. It is pretty rediculous. There are some entertainers out there that couldn't care less about file sharing; U2 is the only one that comes to mind at the moment but I've heard a couple others mention it to be no big deal and that they are over paid anyway. It's not like it is anywhere close to breaking them. The record companies are making the loudest noise about it but still again, I bet they barely feel it financially. Free downloading damn sure isn't breaking them either.

The actual artists make their money playing shows.

[3Vandoo]

Tweetboycott!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[horsepwr]

TweetThat would be a nice lesson for them if all cd sales came to a screeching halt until they drop all the rediculous little file sharing cases.