So, about that piracy... AKA Woman forced to pay $1.5 million for pirating music

[b3nn3tt]

While I hugely disagree with a fine that ridiculously high, I severely doubt that she's going to pirate aything again. In which case record companies will see this as a victory, and a warning to all other pirates

Never going to pirate anything again? Shes been economically crippled, if anything she'll pirate more

Do you think so? If I was in her position, whereby the authorities know that I've already pirated stuff and so may be inclined to keep an eye on me, and knowing that I could be fined one and a half million dollars for illegaly downloading something, I sure as hell would buy all of my stuff legit

 

[evilartist]

I would normally ask "Why don't they punish her by making her pay the regular retail price? It only seems fair!" but I won't ask it, because the answer is obviously greed.

 

[Artina89]

While she essentially chose this punishment by refusing to settle the case, $1.5 million is still a little excessive. They had better be the best songs in the world for how much they have cost her.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Wasn't there a Court Case in the US were the judge was like "These Charges are too high! They have to be lower!"?

OT: She does deserve to be sued but that's way too much for 24 songs. The most she should be charged with is 23.76 or 30.96. 1.5 Million is too high!

 

[Kpt._Rob]

The fact that the punishment is so much more serious than the crime speaks to the real motives of the suit, that is, not to punish the individual, but to serve as a warning to other potential offenders.

I'm not the pirating sort myself, unless the music I'm trying to get can't be obtained any other way (music from smaller bands from other countries for instance), so I'm not too worried. As for those who do pirate their music, I suppose they might want to take the hint that the industry isn't going to show mercy to those pirates they catch.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

That's going way too far to sue her for $1.5 million, especially for such a trivial number of songs. Just... wow.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I hate people who pirate music, so I'm kind of fine with this as a warning to others.

There's a reason why they're suing her for this much: because that's how much the company has probably lost to illegal downloading

Seriously, just because it's a bunch of bits of data, doesn't mean that it isn't stealing. I'm pretty sure you can pay $10 for that album...

 

[Ham_authority95]

I would normally ask "Why don't they punish her by making her pay the regular retail price? It only seems fair!" but I won't ask it, because the answer is obviously greed.

Actually, 1.5 million is probably only 1/100th of the amount of money that the music industry has lost to illegal downloading this year alone, so they're getting it back any damn way they can.

 

[b3nn3tt]

While I hugely disagree with a fine that ridiculously high, I severely doubt that she's going to pirate aything again. In which case record companies will see this as a victory, and a warning to all other pirates

Never going to pirate anything again? Shes been economically crippled, if anything she'll pirate more

Do you think so? If I was in her position, whereby the authorities know that I've already pirated stuff and so may be inclined to keep an eye on me, and knowing that I could be fined one and a half million dollars for illegaly downloading something, I sure as hell would buy all of my stuff legit

My point was that she won't have any money to buy it with...

Economically crippling someone doesn't solve any problems. FACT.

In that case I imagine that she would just manage without music. Granted, the fine is overly ridiculous, but if she was only fined the value of the song, that wouldn't be seen as a punishment; in fact it would make piracy seem more appealing, since there is no real consequence. Also, you have to bear in mind the fact that she could have had a $25,000 fine, she instead chose to carry on appealing the decision, until it got to this point

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I understand why the fine is so unreasonably high. I can even understand, to an extent, the argument that would assert she almost certainly shared these songs with others. But, the last time I purchased 24 songs it was in the form of two different albums which cost a grand total of twenty bucks. The worst fee I see as being reasonable is, assuming those 24 tracks were from 24 different albums, forcing her to pay for the full album for each track she pirated. Maybe tack on the federal fine for infringement if you really want to be a bastard about it, which would still be a fairly steep fine of several hundred thousand dollars.

 

[Roxor]

What's next? Breaking people's kneecaps for downloading files?

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

What's next? Breaking people's kneecaps for downloading files?

its how the casino's dealt with people who were caught cheating in the bad old days (or so movies and pop culture tell us)

corporations and government are no different. 'the house always wins'