Minneapolis, (MN) – A woman has been ordered to pay $1.92 million for downloading 24 tracks from the Kazaa file sharing site – $80,000 per song.
When the case first went to trial in 2007, the jury awarded just $9,250 a song. The jury in the retrial ruled that mother of four Jammie Thomas-Rasset had violated copyright and must pay almost ten times as much per track in damages to the record industry.
Outside the courtroom Thomas-Rasset said the fine was ‘kind of ridiculous’. “I have no means of paying the fine. There’s no way they’re ever going to get that,” she told reporters. “I’m a mom, limited means, so I’m not going to worry about it now.
“The only thing I can say is good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip,” she added.
Suggesting more than a degree of embarrassment at the size of the fine, a spokesperson for the RIAA said the record companies are willing to settle out of court for a much smaller amount and that ‘since day one’ they have been prepared to do so.
More than 35,000 similar cases never made it to trial as the RIAA persuaded people to hand over the cash without recourse to law.
