$9,250 per song!?
While the music industry isn’t exactly Hollywood, necessarily, record companies today have proved they’ve gone insane. And because their lawyers front celebrities, juries get blinded by the stars and suddenly justice isn’t blind, it’s got star-struck 20/20 eyesight.
I’m writing, of course, about Brainard, MN, woman Jammie Thomas, who was found guilty today of violating copyright law and was ordered to pay the filthy-rich record industry approximately $9,250 per song for 24 songs … roughly $220K in total financial penalties, though that’s not an exact figure. Sounds like a woman who’s gonna need a cash advance… and then some!
Defense attorneys claim Jammie was not the responsible party, attributing the acts to either a hacker or family member. But the jury bought the prosecution’s case.
Now, yes, common sense tells us all that downloading music and other copyrighted material for profit is bad, bad, bad and evil, evil, evil. Artists ought to profit from their work.
But is going after private citizens like Jammie the answer? The music industry has something like 26,000 lawsuits pending against individuals just like Jammie, and spendy lawyers who want to be paid, too. In fact, the music industry is probably losing money pressing this issue against 26,000 private citizens, because I’m sure their $500 to $1,000 an hour lawyers make the cost recovery laughable.
And can they actually collect from Jammie? A $220,000 settlement from a Brainard, MN, woman of modest- to middle-class means? Not likely. Even if they garnished the 30-year-old woman’s wages over the next 35 years of her working life before retirement, I doubt they’d collect the full amount. They’ve also likely ruined her employability for life, as well, in all likelihood.
Over 24 songs? That’s not just ridiculous, it’s idiotic.
Here’s a better, more sensible idea: Order her to 10 years probation. As terms of that probation, she must only buy music in the future from iTunes.com or other legal download sites, and must never install a file-sharing software on her computer again.
Back that up with a suspended 11-month jail term, which can be invoked each and every time she violates the terms of this probation.
And charge her a year’s wages in punitive damages, no more, no less. Amount to be determined by the job she holds at the time of conviction. Allow her the time of her probation - 10 years - to pay it off in full; if she pays it off sooner, she could apply to have probation lifted early.
That would be an amount she could conceivably pay and wouldn’t permanently ruin her life. If she behaved, it would be over in as little as five years; if she was ever convicted a second time on the same charge, the charge level could grow from a misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor. On a third conviction, perhaps a felony would be appropriate.
And can you imagine explaining THAT to prison inmates?
JAMMIE: Why you in here? DOTTIE: Killed my husband because he was cheating on me. You? JAMMIE: I, umm... downloaded a couple Britney Spears discs. DOTTIE: Britney? Girl, you ain't in here for Run DMC? You my #($*@ now!
Not a way to impress fellow inmates in ‘Da Big House.
But I suspect a one-time offender wouldn’t be very likely to re-offend. Especially when a decent 160GB music and video iPod Classic only costs $349 or so, and on iTunes, each tune is $0.99.
Granted, some may consider a buck per tune a bit pricey, but you can buy an entire CD and put it on your iPod at no extras cost because it’s yours - you bought the CD. And that’s a lot cheaper than $9,250 per song. By a long shot.
* Photo credit: Jammie Thomas exiting court. (AP Photo/Julia Cheng)
