From Yahoo Music Blog, The Amplifier –

What’s the value of a song? Jammie Thomas-Rasset has spent the last few years in court debating that question. The Minnesota mother of four is being penalized for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs on the peer-to-peer file-sharing network Kazaa in 2006, but how much she owes the record labels has been in question. The jury in her third trial has just ruled that Thomas-Rasset should pay Capitol Records $1.5 million, CNET reports, which breaks down to $62,500 per song. It’s a heavy penalty considering the 24 tunes would only cost approximately $24 on iTunes, which was Thomas-Rasset’ argument, too.

I know it’s wrong to download and share songs. But does that kind of unethical act merit this kind of overwhelming response? I don’t think so.

Is the recording industry biting itself with this kind of nonsense? Yes, it is.

How will that be felt? I don’t know. But I can’t believe that when you do something stupid over and over again, that you won’t get hurt.

From further in the article –

Burying a Midwestern mom in insurmountable debt isn’t the best publicity move, so rather than argue the labels are entitled to the cash, the RIAA has sought to make this trial into a cautionary tale for anyone considering illegally downloading music — a reminder that there are penalties. But as the constantly declining weekly Nielsen SoundScan sales figures demonstrate, nothing seems to have deterred music fans from stealing rather than purchasing songs and albums.

This case is potent symbol of how the lawsuit has drifted from defending the poor and helpless into a tool for crushing corporate opponents.

James Pilant