The $1.92M Playlist!

[B E C K]

Presented by your friends the RIAA!

DULUTH, Minnesota — Here, in no particular order, are the 24 tracks that cost Jammie Thomas $222,000 (NOTE: Now $1.92M) — making it perhaps the most valuable hour-and-a-half of music ever.

    * Guns N Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"; "November Rain"
    * Vanessa Williams "Save the Best for Last"
    * Janet Jackson "Let’s What Awhile"
    * Gloria Estefan "Here We Are"; "Coming Out of the Heart"; "Rhythm is Gonna Get You"
    * Goo Goo Dolls "Iris"
    * Journey "Faithfully"; "Don’t Stop Believing"
    * Sara McLachlan "Possession";  "Building a Mystery"
    * Aerosmith "Cryin’"
    * Linkin Park "One Step Closer"
    * Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar on Me"
    * Reba McEntire "One Honest Heart"
    * Bryan Adams "Somebody"
    * No Doubt "Bathwater"; "Hella Good"; "Different People"
    * Sheryl Crow "Run Baby Run"
    * Richard Marx "Now and Forever"
    * Destiny’s Child "Bills, Bills, Bills"
    * Green Day "Basket Case"

That Janet Jackson song's confusing the heck out of me.  That has to be "Let's Wait Awhile".

[Rama]

So wait...was she sued and this was what they had to pay for illegally downloading songs?

[Sam]

* Journey "Don’t Stop Believing

Worþ it right ðere, in my opinion.

[Derrick]

She needs to just move to Sweeden and be done with our shitty legal system. A 140 dollar per song fine would be much easier to accept and would actually lead to more fines rather than the MPAA fucking around with this shit.

[B E C K]

So wait...was she sued and this was what they had to pay for illegally downloading songs?

For alleged distribution.  That they were never able to prove.  Granted the woman appears to be a lying jerk, but I don't know how the hell that amounts to $1.92M.

Interestingly, re: Derrick-Tom's post, I believe she was given the opportunity to pay a $3000 fine and be done with it.  At 24 songs, that's about $125 a song.

[Derrick]

Well there we go. They'll never collect that fine, though.

[Rama]

Yeah I doubt it either. More of an example type thing I'm sure.

[IDE]

This is fucking stupid on a soup sandwich type level. 

I agree with Tomderrick on the fee amount. 

Also chell out cara duckworth, she's the RIAA spokesbitch.

It would be like stabbing the organization with my johnson.

[The D]

To think, she could have been paying just $24 for all those songs had she downloaded them legally.

Not that I'm agreeing with the RIAA here. The recording industry is run by a bunch of greedy Jews Republicans Politicians? crooks who are destined to burn in hell anyway. 1 million for 24 songs is pushing it WAY too far.

You think that any of the bands who's music is listed is going to see a penny of that money? Of course not. The wealth is going to be distributed amongst the crooks running the music industry who will use it to buy some fancy new cars or some shit.

And odds are this woman will never be able to pay that entire amount, lest she wins the lottery. She'll either have to file for bankruptcy, kill herself, or be perpetually poor and on welfare. Good thing to know that the rich are keeping the poor poor.

[The D]

And sucks to still not be able to edit posts.. the politicians? was supposed to be crossed out too....

[B E C K]

From latimes blog, lol @ the pirate picture they used to accompany the article:

The RIAA's latest victory over Jammie Thomas-Rasset
November 5, 2010 |  6:14 pm
 Having been ordered by successive juries to pay the major record labels $222,000, $1.92 million and now $1.5 million for illegally sharing 24 songs, Jammie Thomas-Rasset exemplifies how both extreme and random these damage awards are. That's a consequence of Congress providing statutory damages that range from $200 (for an "innocent infringer") to $150,000 per infringement. As Ars Technica's Nate Anderson observed, jurors have no experience with damage awards, and thus have no clue what's reasonable in the grand scheme of things.

It's true that the three sets of Thomas-Rasset's peers in Minnesota who looked at her actions ordered her to pay well above the legal minimum. That doesn't make the damages they ordered rational. There may be some infringers for whom a $1.5-million penalty is entirely appropriate -- a CD or DVD counterfeiting operation, for instance. But a noncommercial file-sharer?

Attorneys for Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum, a file-sharer ordered by jurors to pay the labels $675,000 for 30 songs, want the courts to limit statutory damage awards just as they've limited punitive damages. Neither defendant is particularly sympathetic, yet they persuaded the judges in both cases to make dramatic reductions in the amounts they owed. Tenenbaum's penalty was cut to $67,500 in July and Thomas-Rasset's $1.9-million sanction was lowered to $54,000 in January. But the reductions weren't enough to satisfy either defendant.

In the latter case, the Recording Industry Assn. of America offered to accept even less -- $25,000 -- if Thomas-Rasset agreed to have the judge vacate the ruling that slashed her damages to $54,000. She insisted instead on having a third jury consider just the issue of what she should pay the RIAA, which is how $54,000 became $1.5 million. (Thomas-Rasset plans to appeal again.)

 [more at the link...]

-- Jon Healey

[B E C K]

And I'd've never seen a pic of her before, but she kinda looks like a bloated version of Octomom.

[B E C K]

Whoring my blog post on this:

Why Capital vs. Thomas is a load of horseshit.

[Rama]

I think she should counter sue for damages after listening to Bryan Adams.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

On a serious note, though...what do people fined such amounts actually do? They can't pay it, and they can't borrow it. You can't garnish a paycheck for five hundred years. Settling makes no difference...if these people could pay they'd have paid for the music to start with. And they don't do debtor's prison anymore, which is good or else they'd be full by now.

[B E C K]

I wonder, too, because I've read that she apparently could not just file for bankruptcy and get this to disappear.

Even though I disagree with so much of what's happened to her, why doesn't Capitol, the RIAA, or whoever do REAL amounts people have the ability of actually paying.  If they charged her a hundred bucks a song, she'd have a bill for $2400.  I mean, that amount's gonna make a dent in her wallet and make her think twice.  It's an amount she has the ability to actually pay somehow even with an installment plan or something.  There's no excuse to have this balloon to such a ridiculous number.  I don't see how this can be legal when they can't prove the actual damages incurred besides Thomas-Rasset not paying $24 for MP3s.  This isn't Donald Dumps stealing music.  The woman has no hope of ever paying this amount.  I understand needing deterrents, but how can ruining someone's life be the way to go?

[Fiero]

It is not a real deterrent. A handful of people get fined, and the rest of us continue copying music, movies, and TV shows. I would not be surprised if the people getting fined also continue to do so. Why the fuck not? It's not like adding more to the amount is going to make it any worse when you already can't pay it.

[Faye Valentine]

Interestingly, re: Derrick-Tom's post, I believe she was given the opportunity to pay a $3000 fine and be done with it.  At 24 songs, that's about $125 a song.

The same thing happened to my friend and he ended up paying 3000 bucks.

[Derrick]

I'd never pay it. Fuck them. If I can record the stuff free from the radio, what's the big fucking deal.

[Fiero]

I'd never pay it. Fuck them. If I can record the stuff free from the radio, what's the big fucking deal.

Apparently making it super easy for others to copy by sharing it on the Internet is the issue.

[Faye Valentine]

Well in my friend's case it was either pay and shut up or don't pay, get kicked out of the university and get somethng on your criminal record.

[Derrick]

I'd never pay it. Fuck them. If I can record the stuff free from the radio, what's the big fucking deal.

Apparently making it super easy for others to copy by sharing it on the Internet is the issue.

It's even easier with a certain iPod app I have that can record from other apps I have.

[B E C K]

Hey, an update:

Jammie Thomas-Rasset Loses Supreme Court Appeal, Must Pay $222,000 For Illegal Downloads

At least they reduced the amount but it's still bullshit.