By Heather McDonald, About.com Guide to Music Careers
RIAA Shuts Down Rogue File Sharer, Saves Music Industry!
Well, music industry, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief. After a long, arduous legal battle, the RIAA has won their second case against Jammie Thomas case - to the tune (no pun intended) of a $1.92 million judgement. That's right - a $1.92 million judgement levied against a mother of four who shared 24 songs online. Since I'm not very good at math, Yahoo Music was kind enough to point out that this shakes out to $80,000 per song. Thomas had appealed the ruling of her first trial, during which she was ordered to pay up $220,000 for her file sharing. I can only assume this wasn't the result she was hoping for.
Aren't you relieved, music industry? Surely now that Jammie Thomas has been shut down, our problems have been solved, right? Phew!
Obviously, I kid. This is a sad day for the music industry and music fans alike. This isn't a triumph for music artists. This is a win for lawyers and the US music industry's own mafia, the RIAA. Just how does one justify $80,000 per song? Just what does attempting to collect $1.92 million from a other of four do for the music industry?
These is a promising class action lawsuit underway that is charging that the RIAA doesn't have any right to pursue these judgements. Copyright owners have to enforce their own copyrights, and the RIAA doesn't own ANYTHING. I can only hope this case will succeed and that the RIAA will not only have to reimburse every red cent they have collected from music fans but that they will also have to pay damages as well. Something like $1.92 million in damages seems fair for starters. In the meantime, if you belong to the RIAA - why? Why pay dues for this group to strong arm your customers and fans and to collect money from them that you'll never see? Choke the RIAA off by starving them of their membership dues so we can stop with their pointless distractions and start focusing on coming up with a REAL plan for MUSICIANS to make money from their work. I have a feeling that the plan that works isn't going to involve suing music fans who share songs online.
No comments:
Post a Comment