JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum COURT JUDGMENT

I am a little surprised at the attitudes shown here.
Copyright infringement is a CRIME. It hurts everyone in the business of creating intellectual material. It doesn't matter if it was one song or fifty songs it is still a theft of some one's property.
The laws were written for a reason and the fact that everyone in the business of making music is losing Billions of dollars is a indication of the the reason for the laws.

If the guy was sharing those songs on a fileshare network he may very well have shared them with Thousands of users. Those users would also share those files to thousands of users. Each song could easily have been stolen by 20,000 30,000 or more people.

The argument that the people probably would not have bought the songs anyway is simply wrong. That's like saying shoplifters wouldn't have bought what they stole so why punish them for it. How about car thieves?

Here is what the penalty is for ONE copyright infringement.

In a civil suit, an infringer may be liable for a copyright owner's actual damages plus any profits made from the infringement. Alternatively, the copyright owner may avoid proving actual damage by electing a statutory damage recovery of up to $30,000 or, where the court determines that the infringement occurred willfully, up to $150,000. The actual amount will be based upon what the court in its discretion considers just. (17 U.S.C. 504)

Violation of copyright law is also considered a federal crime when done willfully with an intent to profit. Criminal penalties include up to ten years imprisonment depending on the nature of the violation. (No Electronic Theft Act, 18 U.S.C. 2319)

And I do not think Bankruptcy removes a civil judgement. He will owe that money til the day he dies. He will never be able to buy anything on credit or get a Mortgage.

Good for the System. The thief got what he deserves.