Infringement in Court

Can you spare $150,000?

If you think sharing music between friends helps out the pocketbook, consider this: you could face a penalty of up to $150,000 by willfully distributing music on file sharing networks. That’s $150,000 per song.

This penalty may be granted by a jury if they determine that a copyright violation occurred. Juries can order violators to pay $750-$150,000 per song, depending on the kind of infringement that is in question, according to U.S. Code 17 USC Sec. 504.

In a recent case, a jury ordered Joel Tenenbaum, Boston, to pay $675,000 ($22,500 per song) to the record labels whose copyrights were violated. And, in the first case brought to trial, a jury ruled that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, Brainerd, Minn., had to pay labels $1.92 million ($80,000 per song) in June 2009.

These are the first two cases that completed trial after the Recording Industry Association of America began a campaign of using lawsuits to show the consequences of internet piracy. The only way to be sure to avoid this (not to mention loss of network connectivity, censure, and/or other fines from SDSU) is to not participate in any file sharing activities, at all. Make sure you are using legal alternatives for downloading music, movies, and more. Your pocketbook will thank you.