Lil’ Excessive?

A Minnesota woman has been fined $1.9 million by federal jury for “pirating” twenty-four songs – including music by Sheryl Crow and Green Day.

Ironically, the case of Jammie (not Jamie) Thomas-Rasset is expected to be a loss for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as it showcases how ridiculous America’s anti-piracy laws are.

From Computerworld:

Yesterday’s award is nearly nine times the $222,000 fine Thomas-Rasset was hit with in her first trial by another jury that found her guilty of illegally sharing the 24 songs over a P2P network. That verdict, in October 2007, was overturned last September by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis on technical grounds. Davis is the same judge who presided over Thomas-Rasset’s first trial.

The Thomas-Rasset case has attracted considerable attention because it is the first RIAA music piracy case to actually go to trial, even though the trade association has slapped copyright lawsuits on thousands of individuals over the past few years. The case has often been used as an example of what many say are the excessive and unconstitutional damages being sought by the RIAA in its effort to scare people off online copyright infringement.

Unconstitutional?

That’s right. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled that “grossly excessive” punitive damages are unconstitutional.

So that means that the RIAA will lose the public relations battle – as well as this case.

Sweet!

In related news, “What’s Up” by the Four Non-Blondes is still “embedding disabled by request” according to YouTube – which means we are still “trying to get up that great big hill of hope” in our effort to make it “Today’s Tuneage.”