RIAA trial verdict is in: jury finds Thomas liable for infringement
That’s the score as of last week based on cases where users who shared music on the net were prosecuted by music labels. Jammie Thomas, a single mother, with an annual income less than $50,000 was told by a jury to pay $222,000 in damages caused by her music sharing activities.
She will appeal the case and I will not be surprised if this case goes to the Supreme Court.
What have we learned here? Does the music industry that Jammie Thomas and others like her will buy more music legally now? They couldn’t even prove that it was her in front of the computer downloading all those songs.
If the music industry thinks that the only way they can recoup their losses due to people “stealing” music is by suing them. Then it is a sad sad world we live in. Face it music bosses, you are in denial. Adding DRM doesn’t make people happy. Using a format that plays only on one operating system (such as WMA) still won’t make me buy music that WONT PLAY ON MY MACINTOSH! Charging internet radio stations and podcasts outrageous amounts of money just to play your music on air isn’t going to help you sell more. All that money trying to sue individuals for sharing music should be spent on making digital music better. Buying more spots on radio and television so we’ll actually know that there is new music. Use the money to save the planet and all sorts of things rather than get back at the very people they expect to buy their music.
We’ll be watching this story very closely. And I’m sure this won’t be the last.
