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Download 24 Songs & Pay $1.9 Million

In case your teenager(s) favorite pastime is downloading the latest hit record(s) to their iPod you may be interested to know that a federal jury has found a Minnesota woman guilty of downloading 24 songs from the internet without paying for the download.

The judgment against her is for $1.9 million or $80,000 per song. This is the first copyright infringement case of its kind to go to trial. The songs were priced at .99 cents each on the net. Unless you have a spare million or two it might be a good idea to advise the kids.
commcat
commcat OP
79 posts
 
Here is the link to the information:

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/e/1403/06-19-2009/20090619092002_18.html
entrope
482 posts
 
Hey now- leave Kenny G. out of this. Nobody downloads his stuff anyway.
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
I am not sure using the term 'customers' is the right word to describe people getting an artist/s' track/s illegally for free when one can pay a paltry 99c and legally own a copy.
I have yet to see any music store giving their cd's away for free. I am surprised the jurors did not throw the kitchen sink as well as the book at her and fined her $150,000 per song like they could have. I mean why stop at $80,000?? It is a bit silly and pointless in imposing an amount probably unobtainable and unpayable unless a huge lottery win happens to go her way.
chatta
314 posts
 
My ex's brother used to download music for free all the time without paying. I used to warn him about the potential to get into trouble. After awhile, he did stop downloading for free.
residualdissonance
19 posts
 
You dont get "in trouble" for downloading...they bust you for uploading. The music/video Co. cant afford to sue like they did 10 years ago when they were trying to make a "point". Their lawyers were the only ones getting rich. Now they hire independent Co.'s that find out who is uploading/downloading and send emails to ISP's who own their address ranges...force the ISP's to send emails to their customers to stop doing it...and state that if they dont they will be dropped. I'm sure someone somewhere is scared.
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