File-Sharing Mom Loses Again

[Xanthious]

Gee, is it any wonder why the pirates always seem to win in a court of public opinion. This isn't rocket science. When one side is giving people free shit and asking for nothing in return and the other side is grossly overcharging to begin with then try to ruin your life when you put one over one em is it any wonder why the pirates typically look like the good guys. Seriously, nobody is going to give a steaming pile of rat shit when the people that are getting their shit stolen are giant ass hats.

 

[cobrausn]

I bet you have a lot of friends.

More than enough.

Besides, I'm not an idiot who thinks a facebook friend is a real friend. I bet you think you're really popular.

 

[Andy Chalk]

RIAA = Assholes
Pirates = Assholes

This is exactly what makes the never-ending piracy debate such a thorny issue.

 

[cobrausn]

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

I'm afraid you don't understand. Stealing from a CD shop a physical item with determined retail value is one thing. Making digital copies so anybody who wants to can download it is another. It's essentially like reverse-engineering something you bought and giving away free copies. It costs them far more money than if you just took one. With regards to the bottom line, 'sharing' costs them far more.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

And this is very extreme, paying thousands for a each songs when a few hundred probably downloaded it.

And? She got caught, the others didn't. Stealing from a shop and not being caught is no less of a crime than stealing and being caught.

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

Except as I explained, You have court fees to pay. Every time she goes ahead and appeals, she pushing off how uch time she has to pay the charges, but they accumilate. If you lose in court, you pay the judges time, the rental of the court room, EVERYTHING except the opponent's lawyer. Those charges arn't just for the music. Then she apepals, and the fees gow, because she rented a SECOND court room, and the judge had to be pain AGAIN. Then she appealed AGAIN...

They offered her a buy out of $25,000. Everything gone. NO more issues. But no, she refused

 

[angleitaway]

If you enjoy it that much, then pay for it.

But I will not 'share' it with anybody.

There are also legal alternatives to listen to music like listening to the radio, or satellite radio. Supposedly legal services like last.fm, something I forgot to research the legality of. You can also borrow a CD from a friend, which may actually count as piracy depending on how you define it.

There is a gray area, and that's when fans upload tracks to places like YouTube without permission. By using those services, you're consuming music without buying anything.

It's interesting to think of all of those scenarios, but I haven't figured out anything. I may need to learn more about laws to fully understand these kinds of things.

 

[Mimssy]

At least this woman has courage to face the company, not many people would have taken so much after a while ...

i surely hope they will dismiss the case because in our Age of Communication etc, there is no such place for this kind of trial, it's just absurd.

Let me clarify my stance.

RIAA = Assholes
Pirates = Assholes

As such, I can't bring myself to feel bad for her. You know what would have required real courage and discipline? Not buying music from assholes if you don't like the way they operate, and not stealing it either. Just find something else to do.

Thank you! Far too many people agree with the pirates.

 

[Popido]

I like how pro-anti-piracy group justify this by pointing out that its a crime.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

This is ridiculous! I'm kind of glad to hear someone has the balls to stand up against the corporation. They'll never get a million + out of this woman.

I agree. They'll never get that amount of money from her because there's no way in hell she'll ever be able to pay that off. There's no way any normal person could. It's such a redundant sum.

Hey, you changed your avatar didn't you? I just noticed

And yeah, no one will ever pay that kind of fine. I know if it happened to me, I'd go underground... Literally. Live in the ground.

 

[Galad]

soo if she couldn't afford to pay a 50k$ fine, how did she afford to pay lawyers over 5 years? I'd imagine the total cost would come close to that, if not more..

 

[teutonicman]

Those better be some fucking awesome songs.

 

[Xanthious]

soo if she couldn't afford to pay a 50k$ fine, how did she afford to pay lawyers over 5 years? I'd imagine the total cost would come close to that, if not more..

I imagine her lawyers are probably doing this for free. Seeing as this case is in the news from time to time it probably wasn't hard to find a lawyer or two that would gladly do it pro bono. Or they might just be doing it to try to stop the RIAA from using bullying tactics from leaving her in financial ruin.

 

[scotth266]

News flash people: in the age of digital music, it's becoming ever-easier to acquire free/cheap music legally. Itunes sells songs at $1-2 a pop, allowing you to get individual songs easily, Rhapsody allows you to pay $10 a month to get access to 10 million songs, Sirius satellite radio (around $12 a month I think) is radio on steroids. All of these are cheaper than buying CDs.

And if you REALLY don't like the RIAA, you can still get free music without paying them indirectly or pirating. It's called internet radio. Look into it. [http://www.shoutcast.com/shoutcast_popup_player?station_id=1274106&play_status=1&stn=181.fm%20Dance%20Hits]

Basically there is absolutely no reason, or need, to pirate music these days.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

And this is very extreme, paying thousands for a each songs when a few hundred probably downloaded it.

And? She got caught, the others didn't. Stealing from a shop and not being caught is no less of a crime than stealing and being caught.

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

Except as I explained, You have court fees to pay. Every time she goes ahead and appeals, she pushing off how uch time she has to pay the charges, but they accumilate. If you lose in court, you pay the judges time, the rental of the court room, EVERYTHING except the opponent's lawyer. Those charges arn't just for the music. Then she apepals, and the fees gow, because she rented a SECOND court room, and the judge had to be pain AGAIN. Then she appealed AGAIN...

They offered her a buy out of $25,000. Everything gone. NO more issues. But no, she refused

She refused a settlement of $25,000 (Note this absolutely does not cover her lawyer fees, and I believe it does not cover any other costs.) because $25,000 is still a ridiculous amount to pay for a couple of digital copies of songs. I would honestly rather go to jail than let some greedy assholes take that much of my money because I listened to some dudes thwack a couple of strings and bang on some drums in synchronicity. I've been playing music my whole life and even I don't want or think I deserve a cent for my music, and all these shitty bands today (and their managers) think their music is worth my fucking house.

Music is for sharing. There's nothing in the world that would ever stop me from sharing my music with others.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

And this is very extreme, paying thousands for a each songs when a few hundred probably downloaded it.

And? She got caught, the others didn't. Stealing from a shop and not being caught is no less of a crime than stealing and being caught.

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

Except as I explained, You have court fees to pay. Every time she goes ahead and appeals, she pushing off how uch time she has to pay the charges, but they accumilate. If you lose in court, you pay the judges time, the rental of the court room, EVERYTHING except the opponent's lawyer. Those charges arn't just for the music. Then she apepals, and the fees gow, because she rented a SECOND court room, and the judge had to be pain AGAIN. Then she appealed AGAIN...

They offered her a buy out of $25,000. Everything gone. NO more issues. But no, she refused

She refused a settlement of $25,000 (Note this absolutely does not cover her lawyer fees, and I believe it does not cover any other costs.) because $25,000 is still a ridiculous amount to pay for a couple of digital copies of songs. I would honestly rather go to jail than let some greedy assholes take that much of my money because I listened to some dudes thwack a couple of strings and bang on some drums in synchronicity. I've been playing music my whole life and even I don't want or think I deserve a cent for my music, and all these shitty bands today (and their managers) think their music is worth my fucking house.

Music is for sharing. There's nothing in the world that would ever stop me from sharing my music with others.

At $25,000 she's hardly even paying for the music anymore. $25,000 would cover her lawyer's fees, and a ton of the legal fees for TWO hearings. She can either pay that ON TOP of the amount, or she can just pay it off. Everyone keep associating the fine with JUST the music, but the more often you appeal, the more they'll make you pay for the court room, the judge, and everything else. I will admit that the corporation IS being an asshole, but at the same time they left her a relatively cheap way out that would have paid off almost everything. It was MUCH more reasonable

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

I'm afraid you don't understand. Stealing from a CD shop a physical item with determined retail value is one thing. Making digital copies so anybody who wants to can download it is another. It's essentially like reverse-engineering something you bought and giving away free copies. It costs them far more money than if you just took one. With regards to the bottom line, 'sharing' costs them far more.

I'm sorry, but I disagree that it costs them enough money to warrant such ridiculous fines. Pirating music is like making a copy of a movie you got from Blockbuster, it's illegal, but who the fuck cares? My guess is that close to 90% of the people who download music wouldn't buy it anyway (Not that I even think they should have to.), and of the other 10%, about 1% of the money would actually end up going to the band. Bands make almost ALL of their money off concerts. Sure we'll never end up with a hermit band like the Beatles' later years, but that's fine with me.

I mean, do you have any idea how much money Lady Gaga makes for the crap that spews out of her mouth. I will support bands that I like, and will buy their music/merch/concert tickets from time to time, but there are millions of bands, and I'm not gonna pay for their shit just because they're popular. Try before you buy.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

And this is very extreme, paying thousands for a each songs when a few hundred probably downloaded it.

And? She got caught, the others didn't. Stealing from a shop and not being caught is no less of a crime than stealing and being caught.

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

Except as I explained, You have court fees to pay. Every time she goes ahead and appeals, she pushing off how uch time she has to pay the charges, but they accumilate. If you lose in court, you pay the judges time, the rental of the court room, EVERYTHING except the opponent's lawyer. Those charges arn't just for the music. Then she apepals, and the fees gow, because she rented a SECOND court room, and the judge had to be pain AGAIN. Then she appealed AGAIN...

They offered her a buy out of $25,000. Everything gone. NO more issues. But no, she refused

She refused a settlement of $25,000 (Note this absolutely does not cover her lawyer fees, and I believe it does not cover any other costs.) because $25,000 is still a ridiculous amount to pay for a couple of digital copies of songs. I would honestly rather go to jail than let some greedy assholes take that much of my money because I listened to some dudes thwack a couple of strings and bang on some drums in synchronicity. I've been playing music my whole life and even I don't want or think I deserve a cent for my music, and all these shitty bands today (and their managers) think their music is worth my fucking house.

Music is for sharing. There's nothing in the world that would ever stop me from sharing my music with others.

At $25,000 she's hardly even paying for the music anymore. $25,000 would cover her lawyer's fees, and a ton of the legal fees for TWO hearings. She can either pay that ON TOP of the amount, or she can just pay it off. Everyone keep associating the fine with JUST the music, but the more often you appeal, the more they'll make you pay for the court room, the judge, and everything else. I will admit that the corporation IS being an asshole, but at the same time they left her a relatively cheap way out that would have paid off almost everything. It was MUCH more reasonable

It would have still been $25,000 plus the legal fees from the first hearing, and I don't care how "cheap" that seems... It's not.

 

[Weaver]

So does the RIAA actually think everyone walks around with tens of millions of dollars like they do?

 

[UnravThreads]

I'm afraid you don't understand... Stealing from a shop and BEING caught is more of a crime than sharing a digital copy of something. I've been caught for stealing music from a cd shop, and in the end my total expenses didn't even hit $1000 to get the charges completely cleared.

What I meant was that not being caught doesn't stop an event being a crime.