A High Price for 24 Songs

We have all been guilty of it at one point in our lives. Some stopped when others were caught and fined. Others continued on because they claimed it was “sharing.” But in official terms, it is illegally downloading music and it has affected one Minneapolis woman in a huge way.

You may remember a high profile case back in October of 2007 in which Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of illegally sharing 24 songs online. This initial case, however, was determined a mistrial, letting Thomas off the hook for having to pay a $220,000 fine. You may think that she got a break back in October, but the illegal music came back to bite her this year.

The now 32-year-old mother of four was found guilty (again) of copyright infringement for the same 24 songs on Thursday. This time she was found guilty by a Minneapolis federal court and ordered to pay $1.92 million! That comes out to a whopping $80,000 per song! By federal law, Thomas could have been ordered to pay up to $150,000 per song. The RIAA reported that Thomas had been given the chance to settle the case earlier for $3000 to $5000 and say they are still willing to reach a settlement.

I think it’s safe to say, if you are someone who still “shares” music online, you might want to reconsider that choice.