Download 24 Songs & Pay $1.9 Million


In case your teenager(s) favorite pastime is downloading the latest hit record(s) to their iPod you may be interested to know that a federal jury has found a Minnesota woman guilty of downloading 24 songs from the internet without paying for the download.

The judgment against her is for $1.9 million or $80,000 per song. This is the first copyright infringement case of its kind to go to trial. The songs were priced at .99 cents each on the net. Unless you have a spare million or two it might be a good idea to advise the kids.
commcat
Misinformation. There never has nor ever will be liability for downloading. She was file sharing on Kazaa, of course. It amazes me that an industry believes that it is taking a credible and appropriate course of action by suing their own customers. Idiots.
Did she upload or download? I don't think the law allows awarding 80,000 times the actual damages.
Here is the link to the information:

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/e/1403/06-19-2009/20090619092002_18.html
I am not sure using the term 'customers' is the right word to describe people getting an artist/s' track/s illegally for free when one can pay a paltry 99c and legally own a copy.
I have yet to see any music store giving their cd's away for free. I am surprised the jurors did not throw the kitchen sink as well as the book at her and fined her $150,000 per song like they could have. I mean why stop at $80,000?? It is a bit silly and pointless in imposing an amount probably unobtainable and unpayable unless a huge lottery win happens to go her way.