If 20,000 - plus cause by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA ) are n’t enough to show U.S. residents that the unauthorized share-out of music files will cause effectual problems , now there ’s a $ 222,000 panel finding of fact against a Minnesota woman .
And still , the round go on .
In 2006 , 15 million U.S. households downloaded an unauthorized data file using P - to - P ( peer - to - peer ) software package , an 8 percent increment from 2005 , harmonize to The NPD Group , a market enquiry firm that cover digital downloads .
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Duluth Thursday ordered Jammie Thomas to pay off $ 222,000 for sharing 24 songs using the Kazaa P - to - P software . In the first panel test for one of the RIAA lawsuit , Thomas was found hangdog of share songs own by troupe let in Capitol Records , Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Bros. Records .
counselor-at-law of firm right of first publication law of nature praised the jury ’s decision .
“ It ’s unclear why this woman would compound one mistake , offering thousands of song to strangers , with another one , turning down a settlement in favor of a trial in which she had no evidence to give , ” said Patrick Ross , executive theater director of the Copyright Alliance , an protagonism mathematical group representing the music industry and other right of first publication holder . “ Hopefully , this will help more people to realise that these are illegal actions with literal impairment for songwriters and performing artists . ”
Many U.S. residents do n’t seem to be getting the substance .
The number of U.S. households using paid music download services is increasing , but there are still 2 million few than the households that used P - to - P software to download medicine in 2006 , NPD said . And while the rate of ontogeny in P - to - atomic number 15 drug user slowed in 2006 , the routine of filing cabinet downloaded through P - to - P service increased 47 percent between 2005 and 2006 , from 3.4 billion to 5 billion , the party say .
In contrast , the number of de jure buy music downloads in 2006 was about 500 million , a 56 pct step-up from 2005 , NDP said . Still , the number of effectual downloads is “ swamped by the sheer volume ” of files trade illegally over phosphorus - to - P web , NDP entertainment industry analyst Russ Crupnick said in a news program discharge .
The RIAA ’s series of lawsuits against so-called file dealer , begun in September 2003 , is important for “ securing a level playing battlefield for sound on-line medicine service ” and for help record company invest in fresh artists , the RIAA bring .
“ The law here is clear , as are the consequences for breaking it , ” the trade mathematical group said .
Several critic called the motor inn judgement a empty triumph for the recording industry .
“ Despite today ’s verdict , tenner of trillion of Americans will continue portion out billions of songs , just as they have since Napster let the P2P jinnee out of the bottle nearly 8 years ago , ” Hugh D’Andrade , an militant with the Electronic Frontier Foundation , drop a line on theorganization ’s internet site . “ Every causa makes the transcription industry take care more and more like King Canute , in vain trying to hold back the tide . ”
Canute , a Viking Martin Luther King in the eleventh century , sat his throne on the beach and endeavor to apply back the tide , according to caption .
rather of lawsuits , the record industry should embrace collective licensing of medicine file sharing , D’Andrade wrote .
While the grounds against Thomas may have been sketchy before run , the euphony industriousness proved its case in tourist court , Ed Felton , a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University , observe inhis blog .
While she argue that someone else must have downloaded the music , the RIAA lawyers show that the Kazaa drug user had a user name that Thomas has used on other services and downloaded strain by her favorite artists , Felton said .
But Felton was struck by the size of the finding of fact , with damages of $ 9,250 per song . “ That ’s more than nine hundred times what the song would have cost at retail , ” he wrote . “ There is no way of life that Jammie Thomas caused $ 222,000 of harm to the platter industry , so the panel ’s purpose in awarding the damage has to be figure as penalty rather than recompense .
“ All of this , over songs that would have cost $ 23.76 from iTunes . ”
