Reports have come out from the United States that a Minnesota jury has awarded the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $US1.92 million ($AUS2.4 mill) in their lawsuit against a single-parent woman named Jammie Thomas-Rasset. The jury found that she had willfully infringed on record labels' copyrights after she downloaded and shared 24 songs on Kazaa. That works out to $US80,000 ($AUS100,000) in damages per song.
During the trial, Thomas-Rasset testified that it was probably her two sons, eight and 10 years old at the time, or her ex-boyfriend who did most of the downloading.
The money will be dispersed to six record companies: Capitol Records, Sony BMG Music, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records and UMG Recordings.
Thomas-Rasset had been convicted previously, in October 2007, and ordered to pay $US220,000 ($AUS275,000) in damages but the judge who presided over that trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive". Cara Duckworth, a spokesperson for the RIAA, claims that the RIAA does not actually intend to collect the full $1.92 million from Thomas-Rasset: "Since day one, we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so."
The RIAA and major music labels have brought suit against thousands of people for illegally downloading and sharing music, with most agreeing to settlements of between only $3000 and $5000. However, Thomas-Rasset was the first among those being sued to refuse a settlement and instead took the case to court.
In December, the RIAA said it would stop suing people who download music illegally and focus instead on getting Internet Service Providers 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.
Here's the list of 24 songs from the trial of Jammie Thomas-Rasset:
- Guns N Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"; "November Rain"
- Vanessa Williams "Save the Best for Last"
- Janet Jackson "Let's Wait Awhile"
- Gloria Estefan "Here We Are"; "Coming Out of the Dark"; "Rhythm is Gonna Get You"
- Goo Goo Dolls "Iris"
- Journey "Faithfully"; "Don't Stop Believing"
- Sara McLachlan "Possession"; "Building a Mystery"
- Aerosmith "Cryin'"
- Linkin Park "One Step Closer"
- Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar on Me"
- Reba McEntire "One Honest Heart"
- Bryan Adams "Somebody"
- No Doubt "Bathwater"; "Hella Good"; "Different People"
- Sheryl Crow "Run Baby Run"
- Richard Marx "Now and Forever"
- Destiny's Child "Bills, Bills, Bills"
- Green Day "Basket Case"
Unlucky about the US$1.92 mill, considering it would have cost her a total of US$24 to download them from iTunes.
Source: Billboard, The Age
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