RIAA wins key victory

It's a sad day when sharing a 99 cent song (From iTunes, and overpriced even at 99 cents) can result in a fine of over $9000. Did 9000 people REALLY download it from her instead of buying it? Would it still be available for download even without her sharing it?

But the useless "middle men" music industry has to protect it's cash cow (while pretending to protect artist and song writers). If it were a real artist sueing the lady I might feel different, but I doubt any artist, song writer, or singer will see a cent of the $220,000 fine she must pay. The lawyers and the "industry" will take it all.

RIAA wins key victory; accused file sharer must pay $220,000 | Tech news blog - CNET News.com


Also

Why the RIAA should have won (though the fine was too high)

Think about the fine for one moment. Did you ever make a "favorites" tape back in high school and give it to some... that'll cost you $9000 per song on the tape. Heck, even loaning the CD would be the same as "making a copyrighted song available" because the person could have copied it to tape.

I think the high fines were meant to be for people that were PROFITING from copyright violation. People that copy CDs and sell them on the street or a flea markets for a few bucks should have a high fine to balance the potential profit. But sharing two CD's worth of songs should not cost you the same as your house. I seriously think she would have a case on appeal that this is an "excessive fine" in violation of the 8th amendment.

Until the digital age, copying something was expensive and would not be done on a large scale unless the copies could be sold. Photocopying an entire book was (and is) more expensive than buying the book itself. Setting up a printing press to run a lot of copies would require a lot of capital, so people doing were probably selling the copies and thus a large fine is reasonable. But today copying is so easy and causal that people do it with no profit motive, so the fine should not be this high. To me copyright law as always been about protecting the right of authors (and only the author) to PROFIT from their works. Anything done without profiting from it should be allowed.

And before you think I'm being silly, realize that according to the RIAA copying your songs from your CD to your MP3 player is copyright violation, so multiply the songs on your iPod by $9000 and see if you think that is an acceptable fine.