Downloading Legally

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us

Woman Convicted Of Illegal Downloading

June 20, 2009

trYou’ve all heard the news by now. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old woman from Brainerd, Minnesota was found guilty of downloading music illegally on peer to peer networks. The court fined her a crazy amount of $80,000 per song she downloaded. Summing that all up, her total fine is a ginormous $1.9m! I don’t think that anyone (unless you’re Bill Gates) will have that kind of money, do you?

Thomas-Rasset holds the distinction of being the only person charged with file-sharing issues to go to court. There have been others who have been charged, of course, but most of them settled before the case could be heard. In Thomas-Rasset’s case, she was tried in 2007 and fined a lower amount. Following the result of that initial trial, the defendant wrote a brief that was able to persuade the judge to hold a re-trial. The point was something about the jury not being given the right instructions. Unfortunately for the defendant, the second trial ended worse than the first one; much worse; about a million times worse.

Obviously, there is something not quite right here. She may have been guilty of downloading songs illegally, but is (almost) $2m the right amount that she should pay? Heck, each of the songs she downloaded probably costs about a dollar on iTunes!

Perhaps the jury is trying to make a point here. After all, it was not the judge nor the music industry that requested for the amount. It was all in the jury’s hands. Maybe Thomas-Rasset pissed them off.

· Music, Site News

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Music
  • Videos
  • Resources
  • Freeware
  • Applications
  • Podcasts

What’s Hot

How to Download and Watch Free Movies

Watching movies has never been so convenient and easy until today, thanks to internet technology. Nowadays, people can just simply go online and . . .

Read the Post

How Korea is Successfully Managing Piracy

As in most of the world, copyright laws in South Korea have been steadily improving in the past several years, especially as they relate to artists' . . .

Read the Post

Freeware VST’s To Make Your Head Spin! (Part 1)

Today we're going to be looking at a very particular type of software - VSTs! VSTs are Virtual Instruments used by musicians and producers to gain . . .

Read the Post

Downloading Webinars

Seminars conducted over the Internet known as webinars are of great help to many people interested in learning. The webinars being offered today are . . .

Read the Post

3 Legal Ways to Download High-Quality Music for Free

The Internet has made it incredibly easy to get access to music and share it. With services like Pandora and Spotify, music lovers can listen to . . .

Read the Post

Copyright © 2023