Appeals Court Sides With RIAA Again

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It looks like all of us better get it through our thick heads, the courts believe that sharing 24 songs is worth $222,000 and there is no sense in appealing it. I guess she should've taken that original $5,000 settlement offer. :(

For reasons set forth below, we conclude that the recording companies are entitled to the remedies they seek: damages of $222,000 and a broadened injunction that forbids Thomas-Rasset to make available sound recordings for distribution.
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ElGuapo242 said:
The U.S. court system, the finest judgements money can buy.
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Possibly. But, I think on this one, it might be the jury.

I tell you what- with all the regulations and laws these days, I don't want to be in front of a jury of my peers. They can't make good decisions anymore.
 
at this point with all the streaming options and inexpensive sources and well publicized judgements against file sharers it's more surprising that people continue to share songs
 
Well its the lawyers that make arguments that make you think that song sharing is worse than killing someone. Then jury votes guilty.
 
ElGuapo242 said:
The U.S. court system, the finest judgements money can buy.
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Booyah!

It still defies logic that they apply "losses" to the songs distributed. Like somehow they would have gained a profit from the people who shared. Because they shared, they showed they weren't willing to pay. Find her guilty of "illegal filesharing" all you want, but the damages should be $0, as she didn't make any sort of profit with a dollar value associated that they can claim as losses.
 
mope54 said:
at this point with all the streaming options and inexpensive sources and well publicized judgements against file sharers it's more surprising that people continue to share songs
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At this point with all the public transit options and inexpensive transportation sources and well publicized insurance rates and accident figures against motorists, its more surprising that people continue to ride motorcycles and drive cars.


I think similar to the argument above, the people that die in car accidents -- while many a year -- are a small amount compared to the total number of drivers on the road and the convenience for many greatly outweighs the risks. It's almost rediculous to think people will stop downloading as stop driving.
 
mope54 said:
at this point with all the streaming options and inexpensive sources and well publicized judgements against file sharers it's more surprising that people continue to share songs
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It's because what the RIAA/MPAA are doing is singling out people to try to make them into examples. It's meant to scare people away from file sharing. It is a surprisingly effective tactic, as I'm sure there's a drop in piracy whenever there's an absurd ruling.

Though this is only as effective as how well this news is distributed. Americans don't pirate nearly as much as most other countries. So this bit of news wouldn't make it onto CNN or Fox 5, unless piracy was out of control here in the states.

Which is why Kim Dotcom is a very important case. He's an example of how the US courts aren't limited to US borders.
 
You know, when I see these things, I wonder about the value of music...

I'll pass on a $12 album, but if Amazon puts it on sale for $2.00 or so, I'll buy it. Same with Steam games. I may not buy them at $50, but put a $20 tag on it, and I'll buy it. Even if it wasn't one I'd normally pay. The greater the discount, the more willing I am to buy a product I wouldn't normally buy - just to try it out.
 
The problem with courts is that they are more or less forced to abide by the laws, not what they believe the law should be. Unfortunately blame the law makers for writing what fines could be levied per song.
 
A large part of the issue with these fines is because the law and punishment wasn't really intended for the people that are being found guilty.

Those large fees are/were originally intended to combat business' in which distribute content for profit. The fees have to be large enough to be a punishment to a company with more resources and/or income from the offense.

Before file sharing, a single person personally could not effect the distribution numbers needed to catch companies attention.

Now both file sharing and info gathering is so easy, the penalties and laws have not caught up.
 
I would lol at these fools, declare bankruptcy, then lol more. I still don't understand exactly how they are able to get these kind's of judgments for pirating...stupid ridiculous. It's good to see that the corporations are able to purchase jury's and judges so easily though. Also, whoever commented that these judgments scare anyone was mistaken. People look at these judgments and give exactly two f*cks and continue the pirating that they would normally do.
 
WBurchnall said:
At this point with all the public transit options and inexpensive transportation sources and well publicized insurance rates and accident figures against motorists, its more surprising that people continue to ride motorcycles and drive cars.


I think similar to the argument above, the people that die in car accidents -- while many a year -- are a small amount compared to the total number of drivers on the road and the convenience for many greatly outweighs the risks. It's almost rediculous to think people will stop downloading as stop driving.
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You must live in SF/NYC/Chi/non-US.because for the vast majority of the US there isn't decent (much less good) public transportation options, so the analogy doesn't work.

I do agree that people won't stop downloading but I think the number of people that do has gone down quite a bit.
 
jctusmc03 said:
Also, whoever commented that these judgments scare anyone was mistaken. People look at these judgments and give exactly two f*cks and continue the pirating that they would normally do.
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Exactly. There is always someone somewhere sharing music for free, you only need to know where to look. It's been 10 years since I made my last music purchase and that was only because the artist was retiring and wanted to support her.

I taught all my friends how to rip their CDs (into flac and mp3) and invited them to the private trackers I'm on and we share things quite easily and conveniently. We make it a point to give back to the artists by going to their concerts and getting other people to come because they get a bigger cut from that, than from CD sales.
 
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