Although it promised not to file any ‘new’ lawsuits against file sharers towards the end of last year, opting to work with ISPs instead, the RIAA also said it has no choice but to move forward with the legal process on previously-filed cases. Most of them are settled early on for between $3,000 and $5,000, but one in particular made it to court recently and ended with a hefty fine of $675,000 for Boston college student Joel Tenenbaum.

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So if I share a single track I can get fined $150k??!

This makes no sense... a track is as little as $0.5 if not lower. Hell, even it cost $2 it would still be absurd. Or is he paying for all the other people not caught??

when does the 'cruel and unusual' aspect of law come into this equation because right now this just seems ridiculous.

(shrugs) It's $150k maximum per willful infringement. Obviously ridiculous when I can get songs off of iTunes and Amazon for .89 each. But these laws were designed a long time ago to protect people's products from theft and/or reproduction. And these laws weren't based on "just a song" or "just a movie," it was based on proprietary rights. It's also pretty clear that people outside of the illegal file-sharing community agree with these laws considering the hefty 1.92 million fine increase by a jury in Minnesota.

This is a sham. Someone's life is ruined over 30 bloody tunes but there are people walking the streets using knives, fighting and stealing. Society's focus is all wrong, the priorities are all wrong. This person's life is ruined but in Scotland they are only jailing the most persistent and violent of offenders. Certain people do the most horrible things again and again and again and escape punishment.

People know the risks. They know that it is theft, against the law, and illegal. Yet, they keep on doing it. I don't have any mercy for these people. They did wrong and they have to pay for it.

It would like someone shooting someone and then asking that they don't get thrown in jail. Sorry, it doesn't work like that. You did the crime, now you have to pay for it.

This can ONLY happen in the US. The country where everybody is sueing everybody for anything and everything. Stupid country.

I'm against piracy, but this is way out of proportions.

And once again the Artists who wrote those songs wont see a damn penny....

The System has failed.

Well, it's obvious that the RIAA wants the money, because if they really wanted to stop the downloading of music they would have to shut down one source at a time.

you must have enough money to buy everything so its not a problem for you.

you must have enough money to buy everything so its not a problem for you. pardon for the mistake.

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

Eight Amendment to the US Constitution.

And I don't want to hear about this being civil. The Constitution makes no reference to whether it only applies to criminal proceedings.

yea , the punishment must fit the crime , isn't that enshrined somewhere or a rule of thumb of some kind , that story even made it over here , but it was one of those end of the news bit size stories , the reporter joked "he won't be doing that again" , surely he can appeal to someone , and water gets poisoned in india , thousands dye and no proceedings of any kind ,

Indeed this is absurd as the punishment has to fit the crime. When an artist &/or record company establishes the value of a given piece of intellectual property (in this case a single song at .99 cents on most authorized purchase sites) then this same artist/record company cannot and should not be allowed to suddenly drastically change that value by claiming the value of that "SAME" intellectual property should now be over 100 thousand dollars per song when somebody makes a copy for themselves (which is a simple theft).

Such a notion doesn't even pass the laugh test! Let's say I steal the entire CD of that same intellectual property from a store which let's say sells for $20 tops. I then get caught. At best it would be a simple petty theft misdemeanor and I would probably pay a small fine &/or do some weekend community service or something. However, the value of the stolen CD would never be suddenly revalued in court as being worth 100 thousand dollars! On appeal to higher more intelligent court this will no doubt be drastically reduced.

I remember cassette tapes , getting my first double cassette tape player , I must owe someone a fortune , I hope they don't reopen any cold cases , or 99% of the tape deck generation are off to jail .

ok Twister...now this is draconian!

I think your right red , thats a good way of putting it , imagine everybody who copied or shared something , music , video , whatever was tried , prosecuted and fined , we would have more criminals than non-criminals on the planet.

The RIAA must have had Monika Lewinsky, under this Judge's robe.

my cartoon bubble just had a certain scene from a 'Police Academy' movie

he actually got off not to badly , I know that sounds nuts but he was fined 22,500 per infringement , the maximum is 150,000 , did u read the bit about the guy who managed to get a retrial ,holy s##t ....,