That’s the amount a Jammie Thomas, a 30-year old single mother has to pay total to various music companies for sharing music and more music:
Record companies win music sharing trial
By JOSHUA FREED
Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 5, 6:15 AM ETDULUTH, Minn. – The recording industry hopes $222,000 will be enough to dissuade music lovers from downloading songs from the Internet without paying for them. That’s the amount a federal jury ordered a Minnesota woman to pay for sharing copyrighted music online.
“This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK,” Richard Gabriel, the lead attorney for the music companies that sued the woman, said Thursday after the three-day civil trial in this city on the shore of Lake Superior.
In closing arguments he had told the jury, “I only ask that you consider that the need for deterrence here is great.”
Jammie Thomas, 30, a single mother from Brainerd, was ordered to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all.
It was the first time one of the industry’s lawsuits against individual downloaders had gone to trial. Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars, but Thomas decided she would take them on and maintained she had done nothing wrong.
“She was in tears. She’s devastated,” Thomas’ attorney, Brian Toder, told The Associated Press. “This is a girl that lives from paycheck to paycheck, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheck garnished for the rest of her life.”
As an independent (indie) musician that has sold music through various online retailers such as CDBaby and iTunes, this win for the music industry brings conflicting emotions in me. On one hand, I want people to buy my music. Not just share it with masses. So I understand that issue. On the other hand, the music industry is notoriously and historically destructive towards artists. The music industry’s corruption is well-documented. The sad thing about this win by the music industry is that those music artists that Jammie Thomas shared will probably never see a dime (even if she could pay all at once) due to the record companies’ creative accounting.
Yes, sharing copyrighted music is wrong and illegal. But I would feel better if an indie artist won this lawsuit instead of the corporate music bloc. The human wreckage the music industry leaves in its wake is appalling. I’ve seen it happen. Being massively in debt to the record company when you have sold 500,000 copies is just a crime. The corporate music bloc deserves no good press in my book.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.