Hot on the heels of Radioheads brilliant move to allow customers to pay what they want for their new album, The land of the Free home of the brave has become not so free for Jammie Thomas a 30-year-old environmental coordinator with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians. Seems they “cant” find bin laden, but they can find a women who copies a few songs, and then fine her 10 years wages. That will teach those pesky pirates a lesson, You want to copy some songs to your ipod, well not anymore, or you are going to jail. Then again, it really shouldnt be any suprise should it? I mean corporations are there to make money for their shareholders, not to worry about people like us.
“Duluth resident Jammie Thomas has been found guilty by a jury in US District Court of having downloaded and shared 24 specific unauthorized music files and was ordered to pay the recording industry $220,000 USD.
The number, although ridiculously high, could have been much worse. The evidence presented shows that Thomas’ system could have been responsible for pirating over 1700 tracks meaning she would have been liable for up to $16 million USD.
The case, which only lasted a day, had tons of testimony from corporate representatives including unbelievable testimony by a Sony BMG rep that said that all ripping of music from retail CDs, even for personal use, is theft. Imagine that, getting the music from your own paid for CDs, and you are a thief. ”
source betanews