Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 19, 2009 SAD SONGS

Uh...

I need to hear "the rest of the story"!

Almost $2 million dollars for 24 songs!!!

If there IS no rest of the story...then where the heck did they find this jury? At the Roman Coliseum???

Talk about your thumbs down!

And another thing...

Wouldn't this "monetary award" run afoul of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution...the one about "cruel and unusual punishment". I mean...$80,000 per song sounds a little unusual to me!

Anyway...

If you've been illegally downloading songs and such from the Internet, foretold is forewarned!

Woman illegally downloads 24 songs, fined to tune of $1.9 million

By Elianne Friend CNN (CNN) -- A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said.

Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents.

She plans to appeal, he said.

Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the RIIA was "pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable."

"We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do," she said.

Thomas-Rasset downloaded work by artists such as No Doubt, Linkin Park, Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow.

This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. The judge ordered a retrial in 2007 after there was an error in the wording of jury instructions.

The fines jumped considerably from the first trial, which granted just $220,000 to the recording companies.

Thomas-Rasset is married with four children and works for an Indian tribe in Minnesota.