Girl downloads 24 songs, Obama Admin agrees with RIAA fining her $1.92 million

[chess-boxin]

Kazaa though lol

[AnHonestGuy]

I hope it's doing shit all, because I'm anti-war and libertarian.

And in Canada it is more or less of a Grey Area. Either way, wouldn't be caught dead paying that kind of a fine.

[beachboy1994]

i agree she should be fined if she was in fact breaking a law but 1.92 mil is extreme to the point of idiocy. I mean think about it, obviously she cant pay the fine, so she bankrupts or goes to jail. Bankrupts, then the prosecution gets little to nothing, and due to how most chapters of bankruptcy work, they couldnt persue her later so after her records clean up 7-10 years later, she is reasonably fine again. But lets say the extreme, and she goes to jail...either she serves a short term and can easily explain the crime and most likely not worry about it at any future job interview and is fine, or serves a long sentence and because of that wastes (not her wasting, but the government wasting) more of our tax money due to being sent to jail for x amount of years for pirating a song. And that second more extreme option is why i opt to say the advisor was a moron for backing the 1.92 mil fine because with 54k at least theres a chance girl would settle out of court for a more reasonable sum, or at worst take out several loans and give the companies their money.

[MyNameIsNotBrad]

I don't..... I can't even.... I.... What?!

[MoralAtheist]

I've got to wonder why the RIAA doesn't just accept the $54,000 and walk away, before people start asking why stealing $24 worth of CDs from a music store is a misdemeanor (punishable by a few months in jail or a couple thousand dollars in fines) while downloading $24 worth of songs at home on your computer is an offense worth $1.92 million in fines.

^ This. This punishment doesn't even come close to "fitting" the crime.

She literally got a bigger fine than she would have for murder. This is beyond unjust. Shame on the ones who allowed this to happen.

[ProdigalSonReturned]

So none of you guys have heard of setting an example? whelp, guess what she is.

Punish her so harshly that others will think twice before doing what she did in any capacity.

[MyNameIsNotBrad]

I get the concept of "setting an example". But goin' too far can have the exact opposite reaction to what'chu was tryin' to do. You piss off enough people with the example settin', and it can cause more to rise up and do exactly what'chu didn't want to happen.

[khaligula]

One of the points of sanctions is to prevent further crime. It's a gamble. The less people you are able to catch for something (such as stealing music online since "everyone" does it) the more you to elevate the severity of possible consequences if you do get caught, so people do have an incentive to stop. If you steal a CD from a store and get caught doing it, you probably will pay what? A 500 dollar fine? But few people do it because it's very likely they will get caught and a CD ain't worth 500 dollars. But people steal a billion things online, why? Because they're likely to not get caught at all. If you warn them, however, that if they do suffer the misfortune of getting caught, they will have to pay a million dollars, a lot of people will stop doing it because the risk is just too great. There's a lot to lose, even if it is unlikely. The government is doing what it should do.