The Punishment of Jammie Thomas-Rasset

Jammie Thomas-Rasset is a name you should remember. She is the "mother of four" who shared 24 songs over the internet and a jury has ordered her to pay a $1.5 million fine (or about 62.5K per song) after her third trial. (See ).

While she is not the most sympathetic defendant, it is not entirely clear if posting songs to a website is exactly what Congress had in mind when it prohibited the distribution of copyright material.

I want to focus here on the logic behind the huge fines associated with copyright infringement. The U.S. Code authorizes juries to fine infringers as much as 150 K per infringing act, so Thomas-Rasset might have gotten off kind of "light." Compare this to the maximum fine of $5000 for involuntary manslaughter or second degree rape in Missouri or $100,000 for the same crimes in Wisconsin. It makes one wonder why the penalty of copyright infringement is so much stricter than for manslaughter or rape that the U.S. Code punishes much more harshly.

Ironically, if she had been charged with stealing 24 cds from her local store, the maximum fine would have been 1,000 per cd. (See Sec 609.52 Minnesotat Statutes).

Something tells me that we will hear more about this case before it is finallly settled!