$222,000 for sharing music

Huge fine for music file-sharer

news.bbc.co

A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (£109,000) in damages for illegally file-sharing music.

Each year millions of households illegally share music files, and the music industry takes it as a serious threat to its revenue.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying a fine amounting to a few thousand dollars.

There is nothing, nothing, record companies can do to stop people sharing music. It will continue to happen no matter how big a fine they slap on the scapegoats, and the methods of file sharing are just going to get more and more sophisticated in the future, as the internet becomes a larger part of our lives.

IMO, music of the future is going to be locally produced, because there will be no money in marketing big famous stars.

Its so ridiculous. They are destroying peoples life out of pure greed. None of them think that people would buy all the music they download, yet the official calculations of monetary loss are done as if we would.

These people have no morals. Money is their god.

i agree with you 100 percent.the future of music lay withen the underground.....taken it back to its roots...big stars wont equall big dollers for lables in the future...but to be honest i think for the most part they brought it on themselves....if they were not all about the doller and keep it about arat and expression ....instead of puttin out all this bubble gum pop music and rollin with the trends...they would have kept more people interested in buying albums....not just lookin for the next hot single on limewire...just my opinion though...

p.s. and as an aspiring artist im glad this is the way music is heading...i personnaly wont mind touring to pay my rent....id distibute my music online for free just to get fans to be able to tour if it came to that and do it gladly....so i welcome the new age of music.PEACE!

[edit on 5-10-2007 by future flow]

They are their own worst enemies. I had never heard of file sharing before Lars went on TV and made his big speech about Napster and file sharing. I immediately looked into and haven't stopped since. The more they sue the more hurt themselves. Its a shame that they are so near sighted. Since they are fighting file sharing instead of using it, p2p will eventually weed out the business men from true muscians, the true artists and youll begin to see real thought put into music, a much improved quality of music. When muscians actually have to depend on talent rather than a widescale marketing campaign to get their music listened to by the people. And there is nothing the companies can do to stop it.


[edit on 5/10/07 by Pfeil]

Originally posted by Pfeil
Since they are fighting file sharing instead of using it, p2p will eventually weed out the business men from true muscians, the true artists and youll begin to see real thought put into music, a much improved quality of music. When muscians actually have to depend on talent rather than a widescale marketing campaign to get their music listened to by the people. And there is nothing the companies can do to stop it.
[edit on 5/10/07 by Pfeil]

Wonderfull altruistic statements, but how are musicians supposed to eat live and feed their kids if one person goes out and buys a CD then allows 200 others to download it for free.
As for your widescale marketing campaign ?
BOLLOCKS
If music isnt any good people wont buy it.

Good point, chorlton.

In Toronto's trendier record shops I've noticed a trend towards vinyl discs again.

That'd put a crimp into file sharing, wouldn't it?

reply to post by Chorlton


Because the income gained through CDs only belongs to the big shots. P2P file sharing is great free advertising for the little guys, and concerts are where the real money is at.

I would imagine there are plenty of music groups out there with real talent, but they may simply not be the style or look the "MTV World" wants, so they aren't given a shot and have to pay their own way to gaining a fanbase. Now with file sharing these bands are able to record their music and place it on the net for more than just the locals to hear.

P2P is the Great Equalizer of the music industry, and it's here to stay.


[edit on 10/5/2007 by somedude]

reply to post by Copernicus


love the post lol very tru its all greed thay aint doing it because its right its all greed thats what i rekon thay want money and more money

reply to post by watch_the_rocks



nice thread i will be on this one for a long time

to me i rekon if the artist is good the person will buy it look @ the top sold albums thay are all good i buy most of them u2s music how insane worth buying yes britney spears worth buying ? NO worth downloading? YES does she use her money on anything good? NO do U2 use there money for good cause? YES u know what i mean it all depends on the artist and what thay are and who thay are and how thay work thats what i rekon who agrees?

reply to post by Chorlton



How many one hit wonders have their been over the last 10-20 years? How many one hit wonders has the music corps forced down our throats by putting them all over the TV and constant radio play? They make one song that everyone loves and the rest of the songs on the CD are total crap. People go out in hordes to buy that $15-$20 CD just to buy that single song. Spice Girls come to mind, although not technically a one hit wonder, they had one or two decent songs and a huge marketing campaign behind them and after about a year they broke up and now no one even remembers who they were. But they sold tons of CDs just for one or two songs. What about Paris Hilton's albulm? People DO buy crappy music...all the time.


A musician can make plently of cash without a record corp backing them. I know people in two different bands, they go touring all over the place in bars and small clubs, where ever they can get on stage. They have to work hard to bring home cash, but they do it. They usually end up drinking a lot of their cash partying, but still bring home a decent wad of cash that they can live off of for a while. The record corps are uneeded middle men that put out anything that might bring in a dollar. Period.

[edit on 5/10/07 by Pfeil]

I for one, will never buy a music CD again as long as I live.
I applaud the artists who are turning their backs on the Industry and attempting to offer their music directly to the public. Unfortunately the ones who are are successful in doing so are already established, and are now in a financial position to circumvent the Rcord Industries stanglehold on their art.

I have two teenage daughters who I know about Napster, Kazaa, Emule....and a host of other peer to peer sources for downloading the music they want. The point is though,...They would never buy the cd's in the first place. But even though the record companies will not make money from CD purchases from them, they will make money from other forms of marketing. My 11 year old is suddenly facinated with the Ramones. She has tee shirts...magazines...ect. But no CD's.

Why should they invest gobs of money in a form of media that will be obsolete in a few years? Remember the 8-track??

I know I will never purchace a music CD again.




[edit on 5-10-2007 by Sparky63]

The music industry just needs to go with the movement and let all music over the web be free. Big bands these days make there money from touring. Ticket prices have become ridiculus these days, but thats the price the public pays for the increase in music downloads i guess. the way i think about it; say for the kings of leon who are coming to NZ real soon, ticket prices were around $110, since i havent paid for a few of there albums the increase ticket price kinda equals out the guilt..... so they get there money that they deserve, and we get what we want.... just my 2 cents

Theres a lot of sense in this thread, keep it up guys, nice ideas.

Just to let people know; this topic is also being discussed here.

Looks like you were "scooped" by a day.

Originally posted by Chorlton
how are musicians supposed to eat live and feed their kids if one person goes out and buys a CD then allows 200 others to download it for free.

I was gonna say to get a real job, but instead I'll ask. How did musicians survive before record labels?

If music isnt any good people wont buy it.

BOLLOCKS, ever heard of hype and trends? People will buy any old rubbish if it's trendy enough. The crazy frog springs to mind

[edit on 9/10/07 by styxxz]

Originally posted by Chorlton
If music isnt any good people wont buy it.

well, one only needs to look at the current list of highest selling cd's and such to see that this statement is not true....

music these days blows and people buy it up.

no matter what happens, trading/sharing is going to continue. it can't be stopped and that is a good thing.
get the industry out of it.
let the artist decide what happens...

some are perfectly content distributing their tunes for free and making money at gigs and via merchandise....one can make quite a fantastic living this way.
will you get $350 for each seat you sell? probably not
you also won't owe the industry points....

Originally posted by masqua
In Toronto's trendier record shops I've noticed a trend towards vinyl discs again.

That'd put a crimp into file sharing, wouldn't it?

Why would it? You can encode music from any source. You can also buy something like Final Scratch that will enable you to use your mp3s as if they were vinyl. This opens up all sorts of musical presentation possibilities to DJs the world over. Not only is it easier to present original music to an audience via a set of turntables found in any club, it also means, if so inclined, you can download music in place of vinyl that you would have had to previously buy on vinyl.

I'm not sure I understand why the media the music is presented on makes any difference whatsoever.

I guess the lesson is: Be a user, not a dealer.

I have no problem with copyright holders going after those who violate the copyright and set themselves up as a distributer of works they do not own.

Also, learn how to use newsgroups to get your free media. You won't get nailed.

I can safely say ninety nine percent of people i know use programs such as limewire (hey, you can even download limewire pro, from limewire!) to get a hold of songs they want, or various torrent websites which usually offer whole albums of material, and in this day and age, the amount we get taxed, the crap wage i get at work, i certainly cannot afford to go out and pay fourteen quid for a CD. I can remember being 15 and saving up 3 weeks pocket money to buy the new Beastie Boys cd!

It's also quite annoying that you can fit so much more songs on a cdr, yet you buy an album from a shop with 12 songs on it.

I think personally, if you can get something for free, then get it, the music 'industry' has been pulling in the profits from our pockets for long enough, if they want people to start buying cd's again then prices will have to drop.

and i think they will.