US digital pirate ordered to pay almost $2 million

A long-running digital piracy case in the American state of Minnesota has ended with a landmark ruling that a woman must pay $80,000 (about R650,000) per song to record companies for illegally downloading music tracks and violating copyright laws.

The Times Online reports that a court found that Jammie Thomas-Rasset had willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and ordered her to pay record companies $1.92 million (about R15.5 million). Thomas-Rasset (32) was found liable for using the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network to download songs over the internet.

She was previously convicted, in 2007, and ordered to pay $220,000 in damages, but the judge ordered a retrial after having misdirected the jury. 

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and major music labels have sued thousands of people for downloading and sharing music illegally, with most agreeing to settlements of between $3,000 and $5,000. Thomas-Rasset refused to settle and instead took the case to court, turning her into the highest-profile digital pirate in America. This also marked the first time a file-sharing case has gone to court in the USA.

The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, claiming it has lost billions of dollars through illegal file-sharing. In December, the RIAA said that it would stop suing people who download music illegally to concentrate on getting internet service providers (ISPs) to take action.

“We think we're in for a long haul in terms of establishing that music has value, that music is property, and that property has to be respected,” Cathy Sherman, RIAA President, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying during Thomas-Rasset’s 2007 trial.

Click here to read the original article published at Times Online