RIAA rejects reduced fine for 'piracy'

Maybe on appeal the court will increase the fine to $1.9 Million? One woman who bitched about the fine appealed the decision and the appeals court increased the fine hundreds of thousands of dollars. This might happen in this case on appeal?

"Thomas-Rasset copied some songs"
Lost sales due to copying songs is completely flawed logic. Following that path you’ll find as MP3 players with built in FM radio capable to make digital copies of songs and to use them in other devices are disaster for music industry. Also, even higher disaster is a Car Radio, FM or Digital, which allows people to listen music without paying single cent. Public libraries with CD and DVD collection “made available” for any type of copying you can imagine are disaster, if you think the same way as RIAA lawyers in Musicgate scandal, where single mom plays Jesus’s role in public prosecution for doing nothing different than rest of the “country of free”.

Follow one of the cases and there can be no doubt Thomas-Rasset copied some songs, however if you look at her actions there can be no question that any penalty over $5,000 is completely unfair.

If she had stolen those songs on CD from a physical store she'd be put in front of a criminal court and given a fine of $2k-$3k. The problem causing RIAA sued Thomas-Rasset for copyright infringement in a civil court. There really is no Law directed at dealing with this case. Technically it comes under copyright law but that law was aimed at commercial distribution not copies for personal use. The range of penalties is completely inappropriate to this case.

Thomas-Rasset's actions may have cost the RIAA around $50 - ie practically nothing. Now multiply that amount by millions of people and it's a big problem - but not a problem caused by Thomas-Rasset, her individual actions were very trivial. This is not a criminal case - there is not supposed to be a punishment, but even if you think she should be punished then surely $5k is plenty. $1.9M is clearly ridiculous, but so is $54k.

Copyright law only allows for recovery of losses, but in cases where the number of times a work is copied is unknown then statutory damages may apply instead. Statutory damages apply once per work where as normal damages apply once per copy made. The problem is statutory damages were not designed for cases such as this. The minimum statutory damage award is $750 - that's about 750 times the price of a song. Awarding damages 750x the price of an item when in reality there were only a handful of copies made should be against the law. The actual award made of $80,000 per song is so unjust as to defy belief.

Without a doubt those who pirate will pay one way or the other. $54,000 is chump change. She got off easy.

How every message in support of the Retards Investment Association of America is written using a correctly spelt real-world name with a capital letter and is written using exactly the same clinical tone?

We're not stupid, even if you're greedy.

So, taking book or CD in public library and use that material is unethical, right? Or inviting friends into your house and sharing your collection if CDs and movies is criminal, because fat cats sucking blood from content creators, are loosing money, - correct? People like you lately change their opinion after they find their own family charged for similar "CRIME" without evidence. What is unethical and completely unproductive for society is a finding single mom between 50 mil "criminal" IP addresses being used to download and upload something you disagree, and scapegoat her to send message. On the end of day people hate you and music you are trying to protect.

Ethical people don't steal or illegally distribute copyright protected materials. The majority of society does not support piracy and believes pirates should be prosecuted.

Attacking the RIAA, MPAA or other copyright holders for enforcing copyright law is a waste of time and energy because the courts disagree with the ignorant beliefs of pirates. That is clear via the convictions of pirates and the fines that are imposed for piracy. It's only going to get worse for the pirates.

The funny bit is that some of these "laws" are not the laws of society but are the laws of puppet lobbyists pushing all the right buttons and putting cash in all the right pockets. If a majority of society would wake up and see how these countries are eroding from the inside out, I bet we would see alot more calls for a change in who is running things because one thing is for certain. There will never be enough jailspace for the amount of people they will try and get away with putting away if the media and big corporations have their way. If justice could only see the shenanigans that goes on behind closed doors and in the shady places of these businesses. I bet there would be a majority of top tier upper management and politicians suddenly looking for money to keep them out of jail too. If you want to stop piracy, this is not the way...also I believe history has already proven it to be true over and over again. Do you know what they call people that do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome? They are called insane. A different way must be found because as tricky as you think the top security experts are, there are 1,000 kids that are far more tricky and will get away with it and won't stop no matter how many mothers of 4 are arrested.

I would be willing to bet my life that bert,tom,bob and peter are all lawyers or lobbyists.

Denial has never changed law or punishment. She better find the money or she's in deep crap. This should be a lesson to all pirates.

You wrong. She is not in criminal court, which is in this case could be better for her and court will make her innocent right away due to absence of evidence of wrongdoing. You guys are criminals, since bullying helpless people to send message to others is criminal case. Hope you will pay for your crimes soon.

Piracy is not about the RIAA, it's about crime. Everyone knows full well stealing of copyright materials is a crime. Under the law there are no excuses. You steal you pay. For those that can't abide by the laws of society, they make prisons.

She should only be charged market value for song, if not at all. The RIAA is a horrible organization with the sole purpose of running people through the dirt because they can. They think they are helping musicians, but the truth is that they only hurt musicians and anger us musicians. Congrats, RIAA, you just put a poor mother of 4 into debt she'll most likely never be able to pay off for 24 songs that don't matter in the slightest.

The woman is a pirate and like all pirates she should be punished. Punishment is a dis-incentive to convince criminals to change their ways. Some criminals get it while others remain in denial. Now days everyone knows the price of piracy so I have no sympathy for this woman or any other pirate. if you can afford a PC you can afford to buy music legitimately. If not you go without.

Fine her what ever the maximum amount is that law allows. Punishment is suppose to be painful. If she can't pay place her in jail. She'll eventually get the message.

Does she weigh more than a duck? How about her computer? It has to weigh a lot more with all those files on it!

Bob, Jon... I bet the next RIAA scumbag layer to post here will be Tom.

Anyone who thinks RIAA is doing "the right thing" is either mentally retarded or works for RIAA.

Anyone with half a clue can easily learn how to use p2p to download or upload any content they want and all the while point the ip address to some innocent mother of four. It really isn't hard to do. Even if she is guilty for 24 whole songs....there are people with thousands upon thousands of illegal mp3's in their collections and are hardcore in the p2p world. This woman is nothing but a regular person being dragged through the dirt just because they have the money to do it. Anyone with at least one eye open should be able to see exactly what the RIAA is doing. Monsters, every one of them.

She's a mother of 4 kids and I very much doubt she has got 1k laying about nevermind 25k, what is the point taking someone to court if they can't pay the figure the RIAA want.

WWW - FREEDOM FOR ALL.. they should work with piracy not against it..

She should only be fined market value per song stolen and distributed, which would come to probably around $100.

More importantly however, where is the hard evidence that this woman did any of this?? I can go online right now, spoof her ip address as my own and continue to download songs to my hearts content, putting it on her bill if simply her "ip address" is the proof these it-retarded lawyers are going to use. It's the same as me making a mask of a picture of her face and robbing the 7-eleven down the street. It's ludicrous, innocent until proven guilty.

Second, how are these fines being assessed? Usually when you steal something you go to jail...? Also I thought the precedence in these cases ruled against excessive, cruel and unusual punishment??

Third, how come when one mom of 4 does this she is fined millions and facing charges, where when a company steals over 550 million from its stockholders via falsifying losses, no one goes to prison, they pay only 60 million back and a risk board is setup in the company manned by the same individuals whom perpetrated the crime?

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-crm-053.html

Nothing more than corporations teabagging the public (new def of tea party)

For 24 songs?

Anything over $10,000 TOTAL (not per song) is absurd. $1.9 million for 24 songs is a joke. For most people, it might as well be a $1.9 billion. There are plenty of people who don't make $1.9 million in their lifetime. To be charged that for 24 songs is nuts.

people like bob should all be lined up and castrated like the sheep they are sucking up to the content mafia like they do.

i do believe the riaa should be forced to pay 200k american dollars for every letter downloaded off the internet since I am sure each letter is protected somewhere by some brain dead ruling from some braindead judge.

While executing the woman for piracy might be a little extreme, it would help cleanse the gene pool so I'm OK with it.

1.9 million is not even close to enough. They should kill this witch.

What beats me is that people actually still purchase stuff from these clowns.

@BOB
so what? whittle that 1.9M down to a poultry £240,000?
Yeah bet she has that little.

Every criminal in prison according to them is innocent. they were all framed. Just ask them. I'd like to see this bimbo nailed for the full $1.9 million. That would be a reality check now wouldn't it?

Bob, have you seen her sharing these files with someone or having these files on her computer? Or you suggest her to proof her innocence? If not, then you and ppl like you is the biggest problem here.

She should be fined $10K per copy like any other dirtbag pirate. $1.9 M might be excessive but $10K per copy is not. Punishment is meant to be a deterrent for anyone with a clue.

Lawyers identified IP address, presumably used for illegal songs distribution. Then RIAA refused to show actual distribution for profits took place. Then, same clueless lawyers, automatically attached IP address to person who pays Internet connection bill. Then they, blood hungry lawyers, ordered to execute Internet bill payer on “USA most visible plaza” to make sure “Message to file sharers” is delivered. Other words, justice replaced by random bullying innocent moms and grandmas. Smells like gang war in last century, - is anyone in charge in U.S.A. to stop real criminals, or government will add mafia written messages into our constitution?

if i got fined that much i'd go on the dole and offer 10p a week

do they think people have this kind of money stuffed under the mattress?

"It is fairly clear that the RIAA companies are no longer in this one for the money, but want to make an example of Thomas-Rasset."

The RIAA does not want 53,000$ turning into a precedent for other courts to look at for a damages figure. The RIAA will not be able to sue people for millions anymore, which is why they got desperate and offered the 25k settlement.