File Share woman quart million fine

Gabriel013 · 10-05-2007, 05:37 AM

A woman in the US has been fined nearly a quarter of a million dollars for illegally sharing 24 songs. The industry claimed they could have called for a charge in the millions if they had charged her with file sharing the 1,702 songs found on her HD.

It has not been announced how they will seek to obtain the $222,000 from the woman who barely earns a living.

Full story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7029229.stm

All I can say is that if they charged a reasonable amount for music then people wouldn't file share.

The Benny (Macho) · 10-05-2007, 09:40 AM

What's worrying about this is that it was ruled that the RIAA did not need to prove that anybody downloaded the files (which surely is where the amount of damages would come from), or even that the woman in question had been involved in the sharing and not, for example, the victim of a hacker.

Some people have suggested that it's similar (though not identical) to Blockbuster video having to pay damages if somebody rents out a DVD from them and copies it, as they were the ones who put copyrighted material into a situation where somebody could copy it.

10-05-2007, 05:37 AM	#1
Gabriel013 ArchAngel Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Sheffield, England PS3 Network ID: gabriel013 Xbox Live ID: Gabriel013 Posts: 6,800	File Share woman quart million fine A woman in the US has been fined nearly a quarter of a million dollars for illegally sharing 24 songs. The industry claimed they could have called for a charge in the millions if they had charged her with file sharing the 1,702 songs found on her HD. It has not been announced how they will seek to obtain the $222,000 from the woman who barely earns a living. Full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7029229.stm All I can say is that if they charged a reasonable amount for music then people wouldn't file share. __________________ \"...and he shall ascend from the fires of Hell...\" "everyone knows second hand squirrel kills." - Svosen 3 forum tokens

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10-05-2007, 09:40 AM	#2
The Benny (Macho) Complainer of the year Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: England Posts: 1,497	What's worrying about this is that it was ruled that the RIAA did not need to prove that anybody downloaded the files (which surely is where the amount of damages would come from), or even that the woman in question had been involved in the sharing and not, for example, the victim of a hacker. Some people have suggested that it's similar (though not identical) to Blockbuster video having to pay damages if somebody rents out a DVD from them and copies it, as they were the ones who put copyrighted material into a situation where somebody could copy it.