God Bless American Business

With all the troubles going on in the world, it is good to know that the Recording Industry Association of America was able to get its pound of flesh from a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs she had down loaded. Personally, I felt that the $222,000 (yes TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS) was a bit lenient, baring in mind the difficulties the recording industry is facing!

The recording industry on Thursday won the largest judgment so far against consumers who illegally download music over the Internet when a federal jury ordered a 30-year-old Minnesota woman to pay $222,000 for copyright infringement.

The victory could embolden (a nice George Bush expression) the industry in its four-year legal campaign against piracy at a time when illegal sharing of music online is exploding and dramatically reducing music sales.

The decision by the jury in a federal district court in Duluth, Minn., against Jammie Thomas, an Indian reservation employee, is the first case of its type to come to trial. The verdict could convince others accused of pirating music to settle their cases.

Goodness knows how this poor women is going to pay it, but I suppose she now knows what path the rest of her life is going to take.

Of course, it does raise a question on how did the RIAA know she had downloaded and shared the files. Surely they weren't spying illegally on her aka the White House?