Buffalo Boy's Blog

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071004/ap_on_hi_te/downloading_music

"DULUTH, Minn. - The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $222,000 in damages against her."

"The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs online in violation of their copyrights"

Are you kidding me? I understand that the record companies want this to stop but really? Did they ever think that allowing programs like Limewire and other programs might actually give their artists exposure they might not otherwise get? With all the crap that comes out now a days you have to sift through it all to get to the good stuff that is actually worth getting in your car and driving to a record store to buy or putting your credit information in with ITunes to buy from them.

Not to mention that there is so much bootlegged stuff now that bands like the Tragically Hip, The Cure and others just to name a few actually support and encourage their fans to do. The Cure's last DVD released last year was from fans who shot footage. The only place you can get some of the live bootlegged stuff is by downloading through such pirates as Limewire.

Im sorry but this lawsuit brought against this poor woman is way out of proportion and if she got hit for that much then I better throw away my computer right now and plead the 5th because I have probably downloaded well over 3000 songs. News like this won't stop me either. I look for stuff I can't get in record stores or on ITunes. The Tragically Hip have a series of live recordings out only available through ITunes Canada. Well I can't get it here in the States so you bet Im going through Limewire and other sources to download as much of their live stuff as I can.

The thing is when I download something and I like it enough, Im a big enough music fan to go out and buy it. But you can only buy what is available to buy. Also, I want to know if the song Im listening to is the only decent thing on the CD im about to go spent $12-$15 or more on.

Realistically how do they expect this poor woman to pay this? They lost a buyer of CDs when they did this to her because every dime she makes is going to have to go to this lawsuit. Furthermore, if she went out and bought all these songs....it would have only cost a fraction of the damages they brought forth against her. I suppose thats the point they are trying to make, buy it or suffer the consequences.  

IF they are going to do it to her, better start doing this to everyother music fan not just in the US and Canada but all over the world. She should appeal this case because there are lots of others who are getting away with it.