The first ever case in which the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) has filed a lawsuit on an individual for illegally downloading and sharing sound recordings over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is being retried. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis has overturned the original $222,000 lawsuit brought up against single mother Jammie Thomas. A tentative retrial date has been set for March 9, 2009, where the record labels will file additional lawsuits for infringement on music copyright laws. Even though Thomas claims her computer was hacked into, the RIAA has strong evidence that Thomas did, in fact, make such files available for download.
The trial was deemed a mistrial by Judge Davis, claiming that he was mistaken when he instructed jurors that simply making files available on a network is not illegal; however, making files available for others to download via P2P networks or any variation of one violates copyright laws.
I cannot even begin to imagine the agony and pain the RIAA has put Thomas through; however, the plaintiffs bring up a credible point. Simply making files available on a computer is still copyright infringement. I strongly feel that it is essential to not illegally download music because it takes away the rights musicians have to the music they compose. In addition to the negative effects on musicians, music piracy can also negatively affect the RIAA because it constantly loses money for each music file illegally downloaded. Also, music piracy can be potentially harmful to computers because of the P2P networks that allow viruses to ruin the computer. Music piracy should continue to be enforced by the law in order to better society and the music industry.
Background Information
In April 2007, Thomas was charged with downloading more than 1700 songs off of P2P networks. Thomas was charged initially $60,000 in fines because she chose to ignore warning letters from the RIAA . If she had not ignored these letters, she could have avoided attorney fees and such high fines from the RIAA.
When Thomas lost her case to the RIAA in 2007:
What Law Prevents Someone From Illegally Downloading Music?
In 1998, Congress passed a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in order to prevent one from illegally downloading music from the Internet “without the consent of the original copyright owner”. If someone were found guilty of infringing this law, he or she would have to pay fines capable of reaching $150,000 for each illegally downloaded file. Most people began to realize that this law was dangerous and could put them in major debt; however, there were those who still wanted to partake in music piracy. Since the DMCA has been passed, enforcers of copyright laws have been working to strongly implement laws against music piracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment