1.9 million dollar fine for a $24 crime
I don’t even know where to begin. How about a quote from a personal inspiration of mine, Martin Luther King Jr.
“How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that there fire two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
Now I know Dr. King was talking about the unjust laws of civil segregation but I bet he’d be the first to recognize that the injustice of a punishment can far exceed a the crime’s.
Thursday a federal judge jury fined a 32-year-old Minnesota woman $1.9 million for downloading 24 songs worth 99 cents a piece from the internet, illegally.
The woman has four children and a husband. Without a doubt their financial lives are ruined. Her spouse will be equally affect financially, the children’s futures now lost, they will spend the rest of their lives paying it off.
Shame on the jury for being lulled into such a complacent state to find any conceivable way to go along with such a blatant injustice. No matter what direction they received from the judge or the law they shouldn’t have agreed to the sentence.
The corporate monsters that were no doubt instrumental in this case are not interest in recouping the money but rather sending the headline message to all those out there still downloading songs at this woman’s, and her family’s, expense.
The verdict is more criminal than the crime ever was. I’d encourage everyone to ignore these laws and continue downloading whatever music they want in protest to the verdict.
These laws designed to halt the large commercial copyright infringements of corrupt distributors and should not have been turned so viciously against a single individual consumer using the illegal site for recreational purposes. She was not even turning a profit at the artist’s expense.
That’d be like charging people who litter $500,000 fines for dropping a cigarette bud and blaming them for the effects of global warming. Not that I disagree with making littering illegal, in fact I despise litters but one can’t ignore the drastically exaggerated punishment and the wrongfully placed blame being laid on a single person playing such a small role in the grand scheme of its deterioration. The same is true with the average person seeking downloads for music. There is a level of culpability here just not to the tune of 1.9 million dollars.
Just because there may be a legal argument or law to condone chopping off a person’s hand for stealing a piece of bread doesn’t mean it’s justice.
For more about this story cut and paste these links into your web browser
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/business/media/19music.html?ref=media
or
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/minnesota.music.download.fine/index.html
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
How can you expect me to be swayed by your words when your grammar is so awful? Do you know how to proofread?
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
wow. How do you begin a reply to a post that tries to draw an inspiration from Dr. King, a man fighting what can be described as ’socio-economic’ slavery with a woman who illegally downloaded music?
The fact is that this woman illegally downloaded music, no one is arguing that. No argument has been that she’s innocent, only that the punishment is severe. That’s not the RIAAs fault, or her fault, or the jury’s or the judges.
The fact is that this woman could have settled like many others had, but she didn’t. The RIAA wanted to get her not for her downloads, but the uploads. Her crim was only $24, but she helped perpetrate many times that by sharing the file with others.
The RIAA is not going to suck 1.9million from her. They tried to settle, she refused, they won in court. How is this whole situation not her fault? They’ll revert to $5000 settlement, the family will move on.
Wake up and try using some journalistic practices when writing.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Same can be said for medical marijuana.Sure one faces arrest for using it.However I refuse to give up my quality of life due to Draconian Laws.Pot was made illegal,illegally with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 to protect Dupont Corp’s interests.So many folks suffer needlessly,its time for a fresh approach.But with judges and juries involved in horrible outcomes such as this.I feel it’ll never happen.Shame Shame
July 1st, 2009 at 9:35 am
We are so quick to correct others , what a poor life it must be to be correct all the time , I do feel for you, I thought the laws were to protect , first of all who did the down loads , maybe her computer did it or her child prove it beyond a doubt , is that not what the law reads , soon you will be placed in jail for a crime and fined on someones say so!!!
It is time to remove these lawyers and judges who make the laws read for the purpose they want to produce not the crime. If this was a rich person they would have only received a slap on the wrist.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:20 am
The finding is statesman felon than the transgression ever was. I’d encourage everyone to ignore these laws and keep downloading whatsoever punishment they requirement in protest to the finding.
These laws organized to kibosh the galactic advertising papers infringements of pay distributors and should not human been revolved so viciously against a bingle mortal consumer using the nonlegal place for nonprofessional purposes. She was not regularize movement a gain at the artist’s disbursal
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helengreen
May 5th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
The difference amid recreational consumption and medical use of cannabis begs to be noticed. While I think that a responsible adult should have the right to use marijuana recreationally, I do believe, without doubt, allowing for an ill person use of a plant with a long history of medical value ought to be accepted and legal. Marijuana has a large potential as a medication and more awareness and acceptance is necessary. In Summary, legalize it!