After trials, retrials, and years of appeal two defendants are now liable for fines of $675,000 and $222,000 for pirating 30 and 24 songs respectively. Joel Tenenbaum’s copyright infringement cost him $22,500 for each of the 30 songs, while Jamie Thomas-Rasset’s copyright infringement cost her $9,250 for each of 24 songs.

Computerworld reported about a blog by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) (which submitted a brief on behalf of Thomas-Rasset’s):

Frighteningly, the court suggested that statutory damages awarded by a judge or jury don’t need to have ANY connection to the harm actually suffered by a copyright owner,…

Obviously these two verdicts are significant victories for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and perhaps the 6 strike Copyright Alert System proposed by the Center for Copyright Infringement may be a better means to prevent copyright infringement from the Internet.
 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *