Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Should have just bought the CD

A woman was fined $220,000 yesterday in the first trial against illegal online music sharing. Lisa Napoli looks into whether the verdict will have an effect on future piracy.

TEXT OF STORY

Scott Jagow: We have a verdict in the first trial of the music industry versus an illegal downloader. Late yesterday, a federal jury ordered a woman to pay $220,000 for sharing music on the Internet. Lisa Napoli has more.


Lisa Napoli: Jammie Thomas of Minnesota was one of 26,000 people sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music online. Thousands of them have settled their cases, forking over several thousand bucks each. But Thomas decided to fight.

Now, she’s paying the price: 9,200 bucks for each song named in the case.

Paul Resnikoff edits Digital Music News. He says the verdict is likely to scare other file-swappers from fighting back:

Paul Resnikoff: You’re gonna be a little bit more wary of challenging them.

But will the verdict keep people from going online and downloading music for free?

Resnikoff: I really doubt it. Every month, billions and billions of files are traded. So, the chances of you being struck by this lightning, so to speak, is very slim.

In fact, he says, ever since the Recording Industry started suing four years ago, more people than ever are downloading music illegally.

In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.

Related Topics

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace
    2 days ago
    26:11
  • Make Me Smart
    3 days ago
    28:43
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    3 days ago
    6:58
  • Marketplace Tech
    3 days ago
    12:22
  • Million Bazillion
    5 days ago
    5:01
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    a month ago
    2:27
  • Financially Inclined
    2 months ago
    12:30
  • How We Survive
    2 months ago
    22:09
  • The Uncertain Hour
    4 months ago
    22:50
  • Corner Office from Marketplace
    5 years ago
    20:58