Music Industry make $$$ from file sharing

Sometimes stealing music or sharing files can be more expensive then just buying it.

In 2007, the federal jury awarded $220,000 to six firms from one woman sharing music. Jammie Thomas had to pay $9,250 per song. There were 24 songs that she was being sued for. The complaint stated she shared 1,702 songs that were copyrighted. Jammie downloaded the songs and then shared the files through a Kazaa account. Her lawyer claims "the companies never proved Jammie Thomas, a human being, got on her keyboard and sent out these things."

About Jammie Thomas's case

A 12 year old girl, Brianna LaHara got sued for downloading tons of songs. She believed it was alright since her mother paid a service fee of $29.99. This family also used the website Kazaa. 261 people got sued by giant music companies in federal courts. All the people who stole, including Brianna, may have to pay up to $150,000 per song. The family thinks it is unfair. "It's not like we were doing anything illegal, this is a 12-year -old girl". Explains Brianna's mother.

The fact is, big music labels know that streaming, downloading music will be free sooner or later. But, they do not want that to happen because that is how they make a ton of their money. So far, sales have declined 20% a year. Apple pays money to the labels for downloads and so does MySpace, but once people stop buying from them, they will stop paying the labels. The music industries are also selling less CD's once people learned about getting music online for free.

It is not only that people download music for free. Some people listen to the music for free and then pick which songs they want to buy. This way they do not have to buy the whole album they just spend $.99 per song. Even if the music company is not out 100% they are still out around 50% of the money.

Music labels do not expect much to change very quickly, but they expect things to change in the next decade. They know money will keep decreasing until they get none at all. They believe that in many years everyone will get music for free.

The major problem is, is that artists still want to be paid for recording music. artist make money buy selling their work, songs. When nobody buys their music, how will they get their money?

Stealing music instead of buying it saves a ton. But, is it worth it when the artist and businesses do not have money to make more music? Sharing files online is just like walking into a store and taking/stealing a CD.