[Dixielandjazz] Warning For the File Sharers - $1.92 Million fine.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Here's some scary news for those who file share music. A fine levied  
against a housewife for $1,920,000 was for making copyright protected  
songs available for file sharing. Additional facts about this  
judgement are:
1) The award was for putting 24 songs on the defendant's web site  
where they could be downloaded by others on the internet. That is  
$80,000 per song for copyright violation.
2) The defendant's computer was linked to Kazaa, a file sharing  
network. There was no direct proof that the defendant put the songs  
there. (She claimed she did not, and that her husband or chiuldren  
could have put them there)
3) RIAA offered a $5000 settlement before the first trial which she  
rejected. I suspect she has spent more than that in legal fees so far.
4) The maximum fine BY LAW, for such file sharing, via "distribution"  
on sites like Kazaa is $150,000 per song.
Be careful, even though RIAA claims it is no longer filing such  
lawsuits against individuals, they are working with Internet Service  
Providers to fight the worst offenders.
I would add to be safe, that if you have a copyrighted song(s) on  
myspace, or other such site, be sure to activate the option whereby  
the song may NOT BE DOWNLOADED by visitors to your site.
Cheers
Steve Barbone                                            www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

June 20, 2009 - NY TIMES - Dave Itzkoff

$1.92 Million Fine for Music Piracy

A Minneapolis jury ruled on Thursday that a 32-year-old woman must pay  
$1.92 million to six record companies for illegally downloading songs  
released by those labels from the Internet, Agence France-Presse  
reported. The woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four  
from Brainerd, Minn., was found liable for violating the copyrights of  
major labels including Sony BMG, Warner Brothers and Universal by  
downloading 24 songs from Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service.  
Ms. Thomas-Rasset had testified that her former husband or her  
children may have downloaded the songs. But a lawyer for the Recording  
Industry Association of America, which filed the suit, said that she  
“infringed my clients’ copyrights and that she then tried to cover it  
up,” according to Agence France-Presse. An earlier judgment of  
$220,000 against Ms. Thomas-Rasset was thrown out by a judge who  
deemed it excessive.