- The RIAA (boo! hiss!) won a significant judgment in the case of the first file-sharer to take their case to court. Jammie Thompson was found liable by a jury for making downloaded music available for sharing, and was fined $9,250 for each of the 24 songs on which the plaintiff's attorneys focused the case. I am wishing I had known about RIAA radar, a great tool for evading paying these buggerers with my redundant dough.
I happen to be one of those people who buys more music as a result of downloading, due to my constant, insatiable need for new shiny things and my less rabid but still relevant attention to recording quality (my grado headphones are where these desires met). So this just pisses me off, because it means I could be punished for behavior which, in my case, often gets me contributing more to pocket lining than I otherwise would. So I will stick to grabbing non-riaa tunes and paying those hardworking people for their non-collusive efforts.
and a thought:
These kinds of lawsuits are a pathetic attempt by the industry to make up for the losses it incurred by being so far behind the market that the demand was met by quasi- or illegal providers (e.g., allofmp3.com).
Also, Ryan sent out a link to this (entirely relevant but completely Bizarro) Graphic Novel on Internet Piracy (from Underwire blog)
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