Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!
(View past Libertarian pings here)
Posted on 06/18/2009 8:36:30 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
She was caught sharing songs, i.e. offering them, not downloading them.
That’s why here in Colorado they impose fines on homeless people with no income and then sentence them to jail for about 10 dollars per day until the fine is paid. Around here sometimes people go to jail for an unpaid fine for jaywalking!
The security bureaucracy industry is one of the few growth centers in the new new American economy.
Every year more laws are passed making what was once liberty, illegal. Also what was once a single crime, baloney sliced up into multiple crimes.
All this provides work for Cops, clerks, legal secretary’s, District Attorney’s and staffs, court officers, Defense attorneys, copy repair men, office supplies, jailers, counselors, judges.
All this ‘economic’ activity filters down to the community thought donut shops, bars, car repairs, prison construction.
Frankly, there is no limit on the ‘wealth’ that with more laws and more arrests can be generated.
/sarc
Well I think this ruling is outrageous it is like you kid going to the store and shop lifting! They don’t through the parents in jail or fine them $25,000! The kid goes to juvenile detention center! No wonder nobody buys CD’s anymore and most of them have copy protection on them!!!!! I don’t buy them haven’t bought any in years!
This is not a fine, but a civil award.
I haven't either.
Nearly 2 million dollars for 24 songs on your home PC?Wasn't exactly '24'. She had 1,700 songs on her pc. They just sued over 24.
And 1,700 songs isn't exactly 'for personal use'. She was guilty as hell.
Well then, that makes the claim that much more outrageous if the DID have the media legally beforehand.
Good point.
Except it was $80,000 each!
Lots of people have iPods with a heck of a lot more songs than that on them.
Unfortunately, most civil suits don't have such outrageous criteria. Lots of civil cases might have extra awards of 3 times damages or something. For some reason the music industry has special protection and is about to get thousands times any provable damage. So much for equal protection under the law.
i WONDER . . .
did that jury realize they had wholesale authority to rule as they saw fit?
What’s that technically called?
I believe that you’re thinking of the term “nullification”.
Thanks.
I don’t really recall.
I just understand . . . or think I understand! LOL
that essentially, Juries in our system . . . have more or less overwhelming carte blanche to decide a case and the consequences thereof
but that they are snookered to believe otherwise
????
Ah! That makes more sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.