Huge fine for music file-sharer - Freeze-Frame Radio

pipsar6 · Chocolate Pip Cookie

Huge fine for music file-sharer

Jeremy Riggs · Do I look a little pale to you?

We've discussed this before and I'm still not sure what's right and what's wrong.

But it's odd to me that the record companies go after the person ALLOWING their music to be downloaded, but not the person downloading it.

The way I understand it, they can't really track who's taking the music, they can only track what you make available for others to take from you.

To me, if I've got my computer on and a bunch of music on it, and someone else takes that music from me, EVEN if I've tempted them to do so, I don't see how you can punish the person.

I mean, if I bake a pie and leave it on my window sill, the smell wafting out onto the street, and someone comes by and grabs the pie and runs with it. Isn't the guy who took the pie STILL the guilty party?

Can the police say, "Well, there's really no way to catch the guy, so we're going to arrest you for putting the pie in a place where he had the opportunity to steal it".

The internet scares and frightens me weirdface

Jeremy Riggs · Do I look a little pale to you?

Oh, and one last thing.

The person they charged here was not making a single penny off of the situation. Not one red cent.

We all know why she was on Kazaa. It was to download music (steal it). But the bottom line is THAT'S not what she was charged for. She was charged for allowing others to take music from her computer.

Are we to the point where we say "well, we can't do anything to you for the crime we believe you committed, so we're gonna trump up some phony charges on something else entirely"?

I probably shouldn't ask OJ what his opinion is

MzHartz · Permanent Vacation

How's the law stated? I believe technically it's illegal to sell or give away the copyrighted material, but not illegal to receive it. It's not like someone stealing something, because she made it available, they didn't steal it. It's more like she took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill (or Kazaa in this case) and Goodwill gave it away.

But I agree, the amount she is being charged for is outrageous. Their whole case is about lost sales, right? So it seems the fair thing to do would be to charge her the going price for a song download (say $1) per person who downloaded it. It's still screwed up.

Jeremy Riggs · Do I look a little pale to you?

That's a good point about the damages Mz.

As for sharing music though, I really don't think anyone WANTS to share their music. Let's face it, most people couldn't care less if someone is taking the music they have on their computer, they're just there to GET music.

Most folks don't know to turn off the file-sharing on their computer when they use Kazaa or one of the other services.

On VERY rare occassions I still use LimeWire, but only if I can't get a song somewhere else (it's no longer on CD, iTunes doesn't have it, etc). Usually oddities. But I know that before I go on the site I need to move any music on my computer to a non-shared folder.

The only reason I go through the trouble to do that is so I don't get in trouble. It just seems backwards to me. Like I'm doing something they don't want, but they can't touch me. Yet if I simply leave my own, PAID FOR music where it is, they can get me because someone else tried to take it while I was online.

pipsar6 · Chocolate Pip Cookie

It's all beyond me