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Woman fined millions for music file-sharing in US

Mother of four handed $1.9 million (£1.2 million) fine

June 19, 2009 | 11 Comments
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A US woman has been fined $1.9 million (£1.2 million) for music copyright violations in the USA after illegally sharing 24 files online.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32 year-old mother of four from Minnesota, has to pay the money to various record labels after she shared music by acts including Green Day and Sheryl Crow, reports BBC Newsbeat.

The case is the first time a file-sharing case has gone to court in the USA. Jammie Thomas-Rasset had previously been to court for copyright offences, but her trial ended without a verdict.

A spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America said that the companies due the payment were willing to settle out of court for an amount much lower than the $1.9 million total.

Thomas-Rasset called the verdict, handed to her by a Minnesota jury, "kind of ridiculous".

On Tuesday (June 16) the UK Government published a report, 'Digital Britain', outlining measures of tackling illegal file-sharing in Britain.

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Comments (11)

Add a comment

AutumnStone

Jun 19, 2009

She must have been making money out of it then...? NME, why are you making out she's just a mother of four, average women from the street who's shared one too many Bros albums online... Sort it out!!!

Willy Plonka

Jun 19, 2009

Absolutely pathetic. I dont condone filesharing, but for fucks sake, why dont RIA go for the Russian and East German websites allowing Millions of songs for free download with links etc? WHY? Because a mother of four poses no threat to the Lawyers and faceless bastards at record companies that took their eye off the ball 10 years ago, and did fuck all to embrace electronic media. A mother of four is pretty defenceless, but, on the other hand, Organised Crimes gangs pose a threat of retribution to any Coke Snorting Record Executive.....they choose the easy target, cowards................truly shameful.

wellduhobviously

Jun 19, 2009

Instead of chasing the spectre of piracy, industry groups like the RIAA and BPI and their ilk need to take their well-coiffed, over-paid heads out of their arses and work out ways to engage consumers. They're making baby steps with Spotify, allowing folks like iTunes to remove DRM and so forth, but those efforts are preaching to the choir. Alienating more fringe music listeners with legal action is only going to exacerbate the dire situation.

IndieWriter

Jun 19, 2009

i wonder what the artists involved think of that?

woofbear

Jun 20, 2009

Poor woman...pay a lot of money for sharing files of crap bands!

clivefenwick

Jun 20, 2009

I wouldn't call her Jammie! Absolutely ridiculous!!

Matt Mate

Jun 20, 2009

Serve her bloody well right!!!! That is exactly the sort of punishment listening to Sheryl Crow and Green Day should bring!!!

rolling stoned

Jun 20, 2009

I have no qualms about downloading well known artists. These sort of bands probably need to remember they shouldn't be making music for the money anyway. Oasis aren't going to miss a few cds are they?

zoso_cult666

Jun 20, 2009

if you look past the whole mom thing. She had the choose to pay around 5 grand, but she had to take on the system...

sydbarrett5

Jun 20, 2009

Maybe Metallica will pay her fine. C'mon Lars, sell something out of your painting collection.

jonbye

Jun 23, 2009

When will the industry realise that downloading has promoted more artists than it has hurt. Especially as live tours bring in greater profits and people are more likely to go to a live gig if they've bought/downloaded that music. Â£1.2million for 24 songs? It doesn't even cost that to record 24 songs the greedy bastards. Can't wait for this recession to get the major labels, then we'll have some good music!