Capitol Records sued Jammie Thomas-Rasset for illegally downloading 24 songs from the file sharing program Kazaa. A federal court jury has found her guilty and liable for $1.92 million in damages, or $80,000 per song. since under the Copyright Act she could have been forced to pay up to $150,000 per song, despite being bankrupted, Ms. Thomas-Rasset could consider herself lucky. The Recording Industry Association of America’s has either sued or threatened to sue more than 30,000 others that have been caught downloading music or file sharing. The other alleged criminals chose to settle out of court, with the downloaders forking out average settlements of $3,500. This is the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. In September 2008 the first trial was declared a mistrial when it was determined that the judge had misdirected the jury. In that ruling, Thomas-Rasset was ordered by pay only $222,000 – still more than $6,000 per song. the French Premier tried to legislate a three strikes and you are banned from using the Internet Law, but was over-ruled by the courts. Apparently French style basic human rights now include liberty, equality, freedom and Internet access. We wonder if there will be a US Pirate’s Party? Since a second rate actor became president and a body builder governor of a State, it is not impossible. I consider this ruling a little disproportionate to damage done, but I suppose that is the point of punitive damages.
The IP Factor
Opinionated Intellectual Property News Blog with an Israel Slant
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