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Coming Down Hard on Downloaders
by Mark Stein
Oct 5 2007
Oct 5 2007
Music industry wins opening court fight in its strategy of punishing individual file sharers.
EMI Group PLC's Capitol Records Inc.; Arista Records LLC and its parent Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG; Vivendi SA's UMG Recordings Inc. and UMG's Interscope Records; and Warner Music Group Corp.'s Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, North Dakota State University, Purdue University – West Lafayette and Calumet campuses, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, University of Maryland – College Park, University of Massachusetts – Amherst and Boston campuses, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Stevens Point, Stout and Whitewater campuses.
Record companies wanted to send a message to music downloaders, and they succeeded.
In the first downloading civil suit to go to trial, a federal court jury in Duluth, Minnesota, found that a 30-year-old woman was liable for $220,000 in damages for having shared 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
The verdict was important to the Recording Industry Association of America, the music publishers trade group, because it provided a tangible gain to offset some of the bad publicity its
members have suffered for its decision to sue individual file sharers. Critics have said those people are among the industry's best customers, and friends and relatives of other frequent music buyers.
The R.I.A.A. has filed suits against more than 26,000 people, accusing them of having illegally downloaded or distributed copyrighted music files.
"What we appreciated most about this case was an opportunity to put out in daylight the facts and evidence that we collect in these cases,'' recording-industry lawyer Richard Gabriel said after the verdict. "This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our copyrighted recordings is not okay.''
Even before the verdict, the industry made clear that it would continue to ratchet up the pressure on individual file sharers—and on those it believes are assisting them, wittingly or not.
The R.I.A.A. last month, for example, sent 403 "pre-litigation settlement letters" to22 universities nationwide. The group said that its investigators had found "evidence of significant abuse of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement" at each university.
The letters warn the schools that the R.I.A.A. has tracked illegal file-sharing to the campus computer network and that it intends to sue at least one of their students or employees. It asks that the university alert the targeted network user, and encourage them to stop sharing copyrighted music and to pay the R.I.A.A. to settle earlier cases of infringement. The Wall Street Journal said most of the settlements so far have been for about $5,000.
The Minnesota case will bolster the industry's hand in discouraging sharing and encouraging settlements. The jury decided that the woman who lost the case in Duluth, Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, should pay $9,250 in damages for each of the 24 copyright infringements they said she committed.
Thomas, who works in the natural resources and environment department of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Native Americans, may also be held liable for the R.I.A.A.'s legal costs.
File sharing allows users to download digital copies of songs and entire albums without paying a fee to the artist or the music publisher. Several legitimate paid services, notably the iTunes service of Apple, have opened for business, but the music industry says illegal sharing sites continue to operate, costing publishers many millions of dollars in sales each year.
In the first downloading civil suit to go to trial, a federal court jury in Duluth, Minnesota, found that a 30-year-old woman was liable for $220,000 in damages for having shared 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
The verdict was important to the Recording Industry Association of America, the music publishers trade group, because it provided a tangible gain to offset some of the bad publicity its
members have suffered for its decision to sue individual file sharers. Critics have said those people are among the industry's best customers, and friends and relatives of other frequent music buyers.The R.I.A.A. has filed suits against more than 26,000 people, accusing them of having illegally downloaded or distributed copyrighted music files.
"What we appreciated most about this case was an opportunity to put out in daylight the facts and evidence that we collect in these cases,'' recording-industry lawyer Richard Gabriel said after the verdict. "This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our copyrighted recordings is not okay.''
Even before the verdict, the industry made clear that it would continue to ratchet up the pressure on individual file sharers—and on those it believes are assisting them, wittingly or not.
The R.I.A.A. last month, for example, sent 403 "pre-litigation settlement letters" to
22 universities nationwide. The group said that its investigators had found "evidence of significant abuse of campus computer networks for the purpose of copyright infringement" at each university. The letters warn the schools that the R.I.A.A. has tracked illegal file-sharing to the campus computer network and that it intends to sue at least one of their students or employees. It asks that the university alert the targeted network user, and encourage them to stop sharing copyrighted music and to pay the R.I.A.A. to settle earlier cases of infringement. The Wall Street Journal said most of the settlements so far have been for about $5,000.
The Minnesota case will bolster the industry's hand in discouraging sharing and encouraging settlements. The jury decided that the woman who lost the case in Duluth, Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, should pay $9,250 in damages for each of the 24 copyright infringements they said she committed.
Thomas, who works in the natural resources and environment department of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Native Americans, may also be held liable for the R.I.A.A.'s legal costs.
File sharing allows users to download digital copies of songs and entire albums without paying a fee to the artist or the music publisher. Several legitimate paid services, notably the iTunes service of Apple, have opened for business, but the music industry says illegal sharing sites continue to operate, costing publishers many millions of dollars in sales each year.
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