Weekend tech reading: What's a fair penalty for piracy?

[Jibberish18]

I think someone should pay whatever they paid for the music x however many times it was downloaded. If the album cost $10 and was a total of 100MB let's just say and your torrent site shows 10,000MB Upload for that album, then at most you should have to pay $1000. I mean sure, you provided it for download BUT you didn't twist anyones arm to download it. Anymore than that, and you're being punished for someone elses actions. As for the verdict on Jamie Thomas, *****S. That entire Jury Panel should be ***** slapped.

 

[TwiztidSef]

Most people can't really afford to buy albums at the moment. So i believe the record companies are not really losing many customers. Most people are willing to see someone in concert if they like the music as well.

 

[AbsolutGaloot]

Ruining a woman's entire life and crippling her financially until she dies, for sharing 24 songs. Where was the part about the punishment fitting the crime? The RIAA needs to give up this witch hunt, and put all of this money towards making music that doesn't suck.

 

[techpoppin]

$62,500 per song? Really? That is more than a year's salary for one song. This lady only pirated 24 songs...

I know of hundreds of people that have downloaded well over a hundred songs. I dont see why of all the "fish to fry" they pick a mother of 4 who downloaded 24 songs!?

I agree with some of the other posts... I think it should only be $10-$50 per song and I feel it should be capped at a reasonable amount like $30k to $50k. $1.5 million is a joke. How in the world is anyone supposed to pay that much?

Long story short if they want to crack down on consumer's pirating music. Fine a reasonable amount and follow up with an article about how detrimental that fine was to his/her life.

 

[Appzalien]

I still buy movies at Best Buy, but being able to preview them before I buy (even if the quality is poor) allows me to make better choices and not to pay for crap. The Movie industry has been lying to us about how good things are with their releases for so long (taking excerpts out of critics comments for instance that do not jive with what they really said, and showing previews that have all the action in them and the rest of the movie sucks) that I for one find piracy refreshing. It allows me to be a better consumer and will force the movie makers to make better stuff.

 

[bam13]

wow, I´m just thinking, can you imagine the world without lawyers? what a beauty that would be

 

[Johny47]

I have a friend and know of someone else I chat to on steam that 'pirates' and I think I'm going to get some... angry replies for this but I think in the next Windows and Mac OSX update it should download a tiny file that scans and monitors for any 'pirated' content on a PC/Mac and then either report it to the owner or remove it hahaha =P

 

[ALKING]

In some parts of the world we don't have access to somethings so i don't think it piracy i think the up-loaders are just help us to enjoy the stuff that we like but cant get legally

 

[kazarm]

Previous this year a boy was sentenced in Hamburg, Germany for sharing songs on a p2p-network.

He had to pay €15 for each song - €30 total for 2 songs. Close to $40
This is still about 20 times the price of each song, if they where bought legally. Still too much in my opinion, but far better than the ridiculus sentences in the US courts

 

[Guest]

RIAA: Mr. Sparrow...
Jack Sparrow: That's "Captain" Sparrow...
RIAA: ..."Captain" Sparrow...you have been found guilty for illegally downloading music.
Sparrow: Ok, whatever.
RIAA: And you will be fined $62,000 per song
Sparrow: ............you need to find yourself a girl mate.

 

[jurrasstoil]

I think something like 3-5 times the cost of the song/album would be alright.

 

[ZipZpZowie]

I know it's illegal, but that's a rediculous penalty for 24 songs. I guess they want to be like the government and bankrupt people for life.

 

[treetops]

How about law enforcement spends time bringing down insider traders, drug dealers and murders?

 

[ZipZpZowie]

I have to agree....

How about law enforcement spends time bringing down insider traders, drug dealers and murders?

Now THAT would be a novel concept! Go after the REAL criminals!

 

[Guest]

The RIAA the FBI and other anti piracy organizations call piracy a crime of stealing and they continue to sue people for file sharing as they call it. The FBI Anti Piracy Warning says they investigate piracy. The FBI and the RIAA both encourage people to report piracy.

A few years ago a high ranking police officer was recording discussing downloading music for free. He named the name Kazaa and talked about how the songs were arranged in groups and you choose and just click and get the songs. He said it was the thing to do everybody was doing it. He bet his daughters had downloaded a THOUSAND SONGS on his computer. He said he had to get a new computer his old one FILLED UP WITH MEMORY. He laughed and said he hoped the federal governement did not come in and investigate him.

Shortly after this conversation we began reading news articles people were being sued and they were being called thieves and this was being called a crime. Believing what was being said about this being a crime we reported this officer's conversation to the RIAA and the FBI along with his name. The conversation was ignored. A few months ago we were still reading people being sue. Two stood out Jammie Thomas and Joel Tenenbaum who were both ordered to pay outragous monetary amounts. Feeling ignoring the officer's conversation was being unfair we reported it again to the RIAA the FBI the PD and other anti piracy organizations questioning them as to the fairness in this. It continues to be ignored as people continue to be sued. If piracy is a crime as the RIAA the FBI and others proclaim shouldn't this officer's conversation be investigate to see where the Thousand Songs he talks about came from, who the everybody is he speaks of and if he or his daughters possibly commited what the RIAA and the FBI call a crime. This is a law enforcement officer these are his words and they are recorded. Ignoring his conversations seems to be an injustice to all the people that have been sued and had to pay and to us in reporting it and it being ignored.