Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Guilty of Using P2P Program, Must Pay Richard Marx $9,250

RIAA 1, Kazaa Users 0. In the first trial involving the record-industry union versus an illegal downloader, a jury found Minnesota single mother Jammie Thomas guilty of infringing on music rights. While Thomas was illegally sharing 1,702 songs in her folder, she was only sued for twenty-four recordings. The price she'll have to pay: $222,000, or $9,250 per song, or 9,250 songs bought legally on iTunes. Some of the artists that Thomas was illegally harboring included Janet Jackson, Sarah McLachlan, Godsmack, Richard Marx and many other artists not worth $9,250 a song (honestly, who is? -- but to be fair, those acts were pretty hot in the Nineties).

So what's to be learned from this trial? First, thanks to the win, the RIAA will start gunning for even more P2P users, and two, the record industry thinks ripping tracks from a CD to your computer is theft. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song," testified Jennifer Pariser, an exec at Sony BMG. As usual, it sounds like the ailing record industry really has its finger on the pulse of America.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter