Woman Ordered to Pay $1.92 Millon to multi-billion dollar U.S. corporation for Illegal Downloading

Originally posted by jd140
Seems to me the immoral one is the person charging someone a small fortune to save their life.

I suppose it depends if you consider your life worth it or not.

Where would you move too ?
The world is getting smaller and smaller !

Originally posted by mavman
They would never find me if I received one of these letters. I'm close enough to leaving this country on my own terms. A lawsuit like this would be more than enough push to leave.

I'm betting that if she (Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four) isn't actually an accomplice to corportate shrillery and bribery corruption that she raises four suicide bombers with a vendetta.

[edit on 20-6-2009 by In nothing we trust]

You'll love this. I've been a musician for over 45 years. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Have you sung in the shower? Have you whistled a phrase from your favorite tune on your way down the street. If you've heard a song and can reproduce it have you "downloaded it?" Could this be considered a thought crime? The real reason the record industry lost so much last year wasn't because of illegal downloading. It was because most of the work that they considered mainstream marketable music was pure crap. No one was buying it. The big trouble is that music execs and the people who decide on what should and should not be played are are all technically tone deaf. IMHO. I'm old enough to remember the big music scandal with the promoter who paid radio stations for certain artists to receive airplay. I don't just remember his name. Shows like American Idol and their ilk are telling you what you should think is good. Use your own ears and decide for yourself. Go out and find some live musicians to listen to in person. They really appreciate that and if they have a CD they are selling that is self produced and you like their stuff; buy it. You'll truly be helping the artist and to Hell with the industry. I've never cared if I succeeded or not . The reward was from personal experience.

Originally posted by R3KR

Happy Birthday is copyrighted, by guess who - Time Warner !!!!

[edit on 20-6-2009 by R3KR]

Are you sure about this? As far as I recall it was composed by two sisters ages ago. Not sure if the copyright still belongs to them due to the time limits but I never heard it being sold to Time Warner.

Originally posted by jd140
I don't feel bad for her. The music industry has lost massive amounts of money because of illegal downloads. They have already stated that if caught they would prosecute to the fullest extent. She should have heeded their warning. Now she is paying the consequences.

This will be a very unpopular ruling, but illegal is illegal. I personally think it is kind of steep, but she chose to take that road.

OH come on "take that road" !!!!??? Its just music OMG
MOST MUSIC PEOPLE IS FREE ON UTUBE OR VARIOUS OTHER SITES
like there myspace pages and all kinds of ways to download ur music OTHER THAN STEALING IT..... BUT it is a petty crime and HOW DARE them really take it to that level though
WHO do they think they are???? MUSIC MARTIAL LAW????

Nobody could make me feel bad for downloading music.

Sorry if I don't feel like paying money to some middleman so a CEO can make $60 million a year rather then $50 million. I'd rather go to a concert and buy merchandise to support the actual artists.

And there is no proof that downloading music has cost a loss in sales. I know CD sales are way down (15% since last year I think). But this is because of the iPod and iTunes, where people still pay for their music.

I hate the arguments from people that essentially say "laws are laws". Who imposed those laws on the citizens? There are so many laws that I disagree with, and I will break. I don't live my life by the morals imposed upon me for the sake of greedy rich bastards like many others do. Imagine if they did something that is democratic, and had a vote on this issue. I bet it would become legal.

Music to me is an art form. Art to me...should be free. People write books and then people go to libraries and read the books for free. People create sculptures for a city. People walk by sculptures daily.

This whole thing makes me want to buy even less music.