Raise your hand if you think downloading music from file-sharing service Kazaa is just like listening an Internet radio station? No? Anyone?
One person who bought that argument is U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who lowered the fines imposed on a 16-year-old accused of downloading illegal files from $750 per song to $200 per song after she said she had no idea she was accessing copyrighted material.
The ruling is notable given that people facing copyright lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) can face fines of up to $30,000 per song, with $750 usually being the lowest possible outcome.
In January 2007, Warner Brothers, Sony BMG, Maverick, UMG, and Arista Records sued Steve Harper after investigator MediaSentry said that a computer tied to his Time Warner Cable account was downloading copyrighted songs from P2P service iMesh.
After it was discovered that Harper's 16-year-old daughter Whitney was the one who actually downloaded the files, the record companies in December 2007 named her as the defendant in their lawsuit.
One person who bought that argument is U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who lowered the fines imposed on a 16-year-old accused of downloading illegal files from $750 per song to $200 per song after she said she had no idea she was accessing copyrighted material.
The ruling is notable given that people facing copyright lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) can face fines of up to $30,000 per song, with $750 usually being the lowest possible outcome.
In January 2007, Warner Brothers, Sony BMG, Maverick, UMG, and Arista Records sued Steve Harper after investigator MediaSentry said that a computer tied to his Time Warner Cable account was downloading copyrighted songs from P2P service iMesh.
After it was discovered that Harper's 16-year-old daughter Whitney was the one who actually downloaded the files, the record companies in December 2007 named her as the defendant in their lawsuit.
