Minnesota Mother Fined $1.92 Million in RIAA Case

A mother of two from Minnesota has been fined $1.92 million for "willful copyright infringement" after illegally downloading and sharing 22 songs.  Yes, that's $80,000 per song.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset was held accountable for the illegal downloads and ordered to pay the fine.

Her lawyers maintain that it’s nearly impossible to prove that she was the one who downloaded the songs, as her children and ex-boyfriend also had easy access to her Kazaa account.  They tried to make a point of her standing up to the RIAA and hoped that, if a precedent could be was set, more people would do the same.

In Thomas-Rasset's first trial, she was fined $222,000 for the violations, but that judge called a mistrial after acknowledging that he may have made an error in instructing the jury.  Thomas-Rasset then decided not to settle as most defendants had, resulting in the astronomical fine.

So, here is the $2 million playlist:

* Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”; “November Rain”
* * Janet Jackson “Let’s What Awhile”
* Gloria Estefan “Here We Are”; “Coming Out of the Heart”; “Rhythm is Gonna Get You”
* Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”
* Journey “Faithfully”; “Don’t Stop Believing”
* Sara McLachlan “Possession”; “Building a Mystery”
* Aerosmith “Cryin’”
* Linkin Park “One Step Closer”
* Def Leppard “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
* Reba McIntire “One Honest Heart”
* Bryan Adams “Somebody”
* No Doubt “Bathwater”; “Hella Good”; “Different People”
* Sheryl Crow “Run Baby Run”
* Richard Marx “Now and Forever”
* Destiny's Child “Bills, Bills, Bills”
* Green Day “Basket Case”

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Technorati Tags: Jammie Thomas-Rasset, Lawsuits, Music, RIAA

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