(CNN) -- A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs.Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said.
Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents.
She plans to appeal, he said.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the RIIA was "pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable."
"We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do," she said.
Thomas-Rasset downloaded work by artists such as No Doubt, Linkin Park, Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow.
This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. The judge ordered a retrial in 2007 after there was an error in the wording of jury instructions.
The fines jumped considerably from the first trial, which granted just $220,000 to the recording companies.
Thomas-Rasset is married with four children and works for an Indian tribe in Minnesota.
3 comments:
Let's just hope the RIAA takes more notice than just this woman's fine. By doing this deed they have condemned themselves to even MORE of this activity now that people are "informed" of how easy file sharing is and the degree of "illegality" that this can bring as a thrill. Stupid is as stupid does...
I can't see that the punishment fit the crime her. While I don't condone illegal downloading of copyrighted material, it appears as though the record industry wants to make an example of some people.
That's how you turn clients and potential clients into enemies. RIAA must have a bunch of imbeciles working there.
I wonder when will they understand nobody will ever buy all the songs they have, just the ones they like...
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