$222,000 Fine for Sharing Music Online
Posted on October 5, 2007 - Filed Under Internets, Music |
Her lawyer, Brian Toder, told the Associated Press Ms Thomas was reduced to tears by the verdict.
“This is a girl that lives from paycheque to paycheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheque garnished for the rest of her life,” he said.
The US record industry said people would understand the verdict.
Yeah, sure. I bet everyone’s going to be very sympathetic towards the record labels involved, because nobody else shares music online, and CDs are so reasonably priced, and it’s obviously imperative to make a statement by ruining some random Kazaa user’s finances for the rest of her life. Also, it’s very understandable that the music labels would not try to shut down file sharing sites themselves, but instead focus on whacking assorted small fry with massive financial penalties. Clearly, that makes much more sense, because it will prevent others from doing exactly the same thing with the still freely available software, and it casts the record companies in a good light. Yet another canny decision by the music industry.
Comments
7 Responses to “$222,000 Fine for Sharing Music Online”
Leave a Reply
Jayze, that’s obscene. 24 specific songs. Uhh… I’m sharing like 2,000 right now, rofl.
Correction: 7,173
I actually can’t understand that mentality - I mean, that sort of behaviour will just lead to more people sending music around out of spite… AND the record industry gain a greater reputation for being cunts
It’s still stealing though really, isn’t it?
They said the same thing about recordable tapes, and would you believe, radio. Record companies only have themselves to blame for not expanding their business to modern media.
If I run a business and decide to overprice my products that doesn’t give people the right to steal them just because they think the price is too high. The people to blame are the people who steal the music (not Thomas as she apparently claims to own all the music she was ’sharing’ but rather anyone who downloaded from her, rather than paying for the music themselves.)
Also: plug for my blog which has been inspired by this post: http://www.thebrainofbrian.blogspot.com
I can’t understand why she didn’t settle out of court. The article I read said normally people pay a few thousand, say sorry and that’s it. She however decided to fight it on the grounds that “everyone does it” and ended up getting totally screwed.