Thursday, November 4, 2010

3rd Monstrous and Shocking Jury Verdict Against Woman for Sharing 24 Songs on the Internet

TwinCities.com attributed to the Associated Press, has the jaw-dropping account of the music sharing verdict against a local woman. 

"A federal jury has decided a Minnesota woman owes $1.5 million for sharing 24 songs over the Internet.


[Federal] jurors determined Wednesday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset owes $62,500 per song.   Last year, a federal jury found Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. She was ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages, or $80,000 per song.  [Note: there was an earlier trial, 3 jury trials in all. In the first case, reveresed by the jury awarded RIAA a$300,000 + verdict.  That verdict was reversed by the trial judge on his own motion based on an erroneous instruction.]

But Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis reduced the verdict to about $54,000 in damages, calling the jury's penalty 'monstrous and shocking.' The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group representing the major music labels, rejected the reduced penalty, setting up the new trial to determine damages.

The RIAA says in a statement it hopes Thomas-Rasset 'finally accepts responsibility for her actions.'  A message left for Thomas-Rasset's attorney was not immediately returned."
______________________________
How about that RIAA?  Are we nuts in this country, sometimes?

We are nuts. 

There is a report this morning at the news site for Portland Press Herald (Maine) about a local man who won a $125,000 federal court jury verdict for being beat up by local cops.  Maine law caps damages at $20,000.  While I profess my guilt at comparing apples and oranges, isn't it amazing that a huge corporate lobby organization can get two million dollar jury awards vis-a-vis an individual for sharing 24 songs online, while someone who sustained provable physical injuries against the constabulary has his verdict "cap[ped]" at $20,000?

3 comments:

  1. Bad Lawyer, you consistently have these stories before ABAJ, I think they are sniping you, dude.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The real question here, beyond this woman's clear disgraceful dilemma, is how much of the money collected by RIAA and SoundExchange reach the proper musicians? And what is the ratio of those monies going directly to the thugs ... er bad lawyers and members of Congress ... who authorized their thefts ... er collections?

    ReplyDelete
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