[LINK] copyright violation bizarrity

[Jan Whitaker]

[the land of my birth is nuts]

"Mother refuses to pay $1.47 million for pirating music online

November 5, 2010 - 8:56AM

A US jury has ordered a Minnesota woman to pay $US1.5 million 
($1.47m) for illegally downloading 24 songs in a high-profile digital 
piracy case.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four, was found liable by a 
jury on Wednesday of copyright infringement for using KaZaA 
peer-to-peer file-sharing network to download the songs over the internet.

She was ordered to pay $US62,500 for each of the 24 songs, a total of 
$US1.5 million.

The verdict was the third in the long-running case and was welcomed 
by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"We are again thankful to the jury for its service in this matter and 
that they recognised the severity of the defendant's misconduct," the 
RIAA said in a statement.

"Now with three jury decisions behind us along with a clear 
affirmation of Ms Thomas-Rasset's willful liability, it is our hope 
that she finally accepts responsibility for her actions," it said.

But one of Thomas-Rasset's attorneys has said that the mother still 
won't pay the damages.

In June 2009, a jury ordered Thomas-Rasset to pay $US1.92 million - 
or $US80,000 per song - to six record companies: Capitol Records, 
Sony BMG Music, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. 
Records and UMG Recordings.

Thomas-Rasset was convicted previously, in October 2007, and ordered 
to pay US220,000 in damages but the judge who presided over that 
trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and 
"oppressive".

The RIAA and major music labels brought suit against thousands of 
people for illegally downloading and sharing music, with most 
agreeing to settlements of between $US3,000 and $US5,000.

Thomas-Rasset, however, has consistently refused to settle the case.

In December 2008, the RIAA said it will stop suing people who 
download music illegally and focus instead on getting ISPs to take action.

The move away from litigation represented a major shift in strategy 
for the music industry group, which had filed lawsuits against some 
35,000 people for online music piracy since 2003.

Despite being ordered by three separate juries to pay a substancial 
amount of money, one of her attorneys, Kiwi Camara, said Thursday 
that she won't pay, and he plans to argue that the statute allowing 
such high damages for copyright violations is unconstitutional."

http://www.theage.com.au/action/printArticle?id=2027215




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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