Piracy, Ignorance and the Law

The $1.92 million verdict against a Minnesota woman accused of sharing 24 songs over the Internet could ratchet up the pressure on other defendants to settle with the recording industry.
A federal jury in Minneapolis ruled that Jammie Thomas-Rasset must pay $1.92 million for willful infringement of the recording industry's copyrights by posting the music on the file-sharing site Kazaa.
Under federal law, the recording companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to raise that to as much as $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were willful. The jury decided on $80,000 per song.
more HERE

Related:
Award In Thomas Case Raises Constitutional Questions
$1.9 million verdict could prove RIAA's downfall
Bankruptcy could protect Jammie Thomas

...although we agree that the fine SEEMS excessive, the fact of the matter is millions of people are 'willfully' stealing and sharing copyrighted material online every day! Copyright laws have been on the books for a very long time and artists have fought long and hard to establish and preserve those rights...Perhaps the laws need modification, but protection for artists and intellectual property must exist...
The (general) attitude of the public and technology publications of 'outrage' is, in and of itself, outrageous...it's simply more of the selfish, apathetic attitudes that exist these days...oh, and ignorance...bottom line: music file sharing is stealing.