woman ordered to pay 1.8 million for illegal downloads
A US jury has ordered a 32-year-old woman to pay $US1.92 million ($A2.4 million) in damages for illegally downloading 24 songs in a high-profile digital piracy case.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four from the US state of Minnesota, was found liable for using the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network to download the songs over the internet.

The jury took just under five hours on Thursday to reach its verdict.

It ordered Thomas-Rasset to pay 1.92 million dollars - or $US80,000 ($A100,000) per song - 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 $US220,000 ($A275,000) in damages but the judge who presided over that trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive."

The Recording Industry Association of America (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 3,000 and 5,000 dollars.

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 will 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.

What do you all think about this? I think the major difference between us and that woman is that she downloaded it from a p2p program, but we're downloading from separate links from upload services. do you think that we are vulnerable too?

It makes me feel scared!!! How do companies tell if we have downloaded things illegally? I mean if we download things from rapidshare with file with a random name like 003uy7584i then can they track us???

Shouldnt they be taking care of real crimes that are goin on?

^^ well thats the thing, most people dont think that downloading music is that much of a big deal because it is a thing 'incorporeal', it is not a tangible thing. so when you "steal" it, it does not seem so bad, because you can't see the impact it has on the person you are stealing it from. i guess its analagous to going into a cd store and stealing a cd....so it kinda really is real crime.

I think it's OK to punish people for uploading music, but not for downloading it... I know this may seem hypocritical of me but as long as it's available all over the Internet there's nothing wrong about downloading the songs you're searching for, right? If you're looking for a CD at a store, no matter if it's cheap or expensive, and then someone offers you that same CD for free you won't think twice before accepting it, will you?

And by punishing people for uploading music, I mean only in special cases like the constant early leaks because as long as the CD has already been released and I already have mine, I can do with it whatever I want! But what really damages albums/singles sales are the early leaks, so they are the real record companies "enemies", not people who download them...

I just cant believe it was such a huge deal and fine over 24 songs... I mean give her a break!! As we all know there are people who have downloaded and posted tens of thousands of files if not more.

I find this ridiculous and absurd. I mean focus more time on real criminals like rapists and murders. Instead of wasted time on this pointless drivel. All she did was download music not slaughter innocent children give me a damn break!

Millions of people download music illegally around the world every day, and they are worried about recouping some thousands of dollars off a few individuals. What a stupid waste of time.

The amount they have fined her is rediculous, she won't ever be able to pay it however long she lives. If they're gonna fine her, it should be a few hundred dollars, max.

And yeah, it's rediculous, it's not harming anyone, just an excuse for record companies to make more money!

There are far worse crimes to worry about out there.

It is a real crime.

Stealing Music Online Is The Same Thing As Stealing A CD from a store.