There has been a lot of talk about RIAA's litigation program, which sees the governing body of the American music industry suing music fans who have downloaded tracks, but it has taken this long to successfully convict the first victim.
30 year old Jammie Thomas was fined $US220,000 for sharing 24 songs on her computer, which works out to be $9250 per song.She, and others targeted by the ridiculous lawsuits were offered to settle out of court by paying fines of just a few thousand dollars, of which Thomas refused.
The fine could've reached $US150,000 per song if the court had found reason to convict her of wilful copyright infringement, and they could've fined her for all 1702 files found in the "online" file on her computer. Theoretically, she could've easily been sued for $US15.6million.
The songs on her computer included ones by artists such as Destiny's Child and Godsmack.
Industry commentator Bob Lefsetz said in his blog-esque mailout, "Now if I rang up Robert or Jimmy and asked them... Do you want a few rich teenagers paying a hundred bucks plus for your catalog or MILLIONS paying a lot less, what do you think they'd say?
"Well, they'd say this Ahmet Ertegun tribute is really a soft launch for their tour. They're going to go out on the road and rape and pillage...why do you think they're PRACTICING SO HARD! And they don't want to play arenas, but STADIUMS, like in the old days, and they want to FILL THESE BUILDINGS! And the old farts will pay a lot to sit up close, but they won't pay a fortune to sit in the bleachers. But these kids, they'll be thrilled just to BE INSIDE!"
Radiohead are taking a more proactive approach to the internet, releasing the album next week online for whatever you want to pay for it.
