2008 Woodie Awards
Duluth downloading case affects SCSU
Nicole Gillespie
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old mother of two from Brainerd, Minn., was accused by the recording industry of sharing 1,702 songs for free on the Internet through the file-sharing network, KaZaA. The recording industry said it is in violation of copyright laws.
In his article, "Music Download Trial Starts in Minnesota," Joshua Freed, of the Associated Press, says Thomas is the first of 26,000 people to be sued by the record industry and taken to court.
Freed also states most of those people have settled, to prevent expensive court proceedings, by paying a few thousand dollars to the record industry.
When asked why she chose to take it to trial, she said, "I am not going to be bullied."
The record companies Sony BMG and Capitol Records were two of the six suing Thomas.
Only 24 of the 1,702 songs were brought into question at the trial that began testimonies last Wednesday, and for each song, a price could range from $750-$150,000.
After a two-day testimonial and a four-hour jury deliberation, the verdict found Thomas liable for copyright infringement for all 24 songs in question, with a price tag of $9,250 a song, totaling $222,000.
This decision was based on finding Thomas willful of infringement versus unwillful, which was a difference in a maximum dollar amount per song of $120,000 and therefore could have potentially cost Thomas $1.2 million dollars.
What does this mean for SCSU students living on campus using music file-sharing programs?
According to Darrin Printy, IT security coordinator of information technology services at SCSU, when the school
Because the letter does not ask for indication of the user, Darrin attempts to find the person, contact them, inform them of the letter and situation, and the program and songs indicated by the letter were found on their computer.
He then asks that they please remove the program from their computers via uninstall programming.
"There are usually no problems after that," Printy said.
Jordan Volkenant, a third-year SCSU student, living off-campus, says, "I never put it [music file-sharing networks] on my computer because it's bad for your computer and attracts viruses," when asked whether he used such programs as KaZaA while living on or off campus.
When asked whether there was a problem with illegal music file-sharing here on campus, Printy responded, "We have technology on campus that allows us to decide what the most important use for the internet." Because of this technology, Printy says that these programs, "don't work very well on campus."
In response to how many letters indicating such file-sharing being used he receives in a school year Printy said, "About a dozen," and, "So far this year we have only gotten one."
In his article, "Music Download Trial Starts in Minnesota," Joshua Freed, of the Associated Press, says Thomas is the first of 26,000 people to be sued by the record industry and taken to court.
Freed also states most of those people have settled, to prevent expensive court proceedings, by paying a few thousand dollars to the record industry.
When asked why she chose to take it to trial, she said, "I am not going to be bullied."
The record companies Sony BMG and Capitol Records were two of the six suing Thomas.
Only 24 of the 1,702 songs were brought into question at the trial that began testimonies last Wednesday, and for each song, a price could range from $750-$150,000.
After a two-day testimonial and a four-hour jury deliberation, the verdict found Thomas liable for copyright infringement for all 24 songs in question, with a price tag of $9,250 a song, totaling $222,000.
This decision was based on finding Thomas willful of infringement versus unwillful, which was a difference in a maximum dollar amount per song of $120,000 and therefore could have potentially cost Thomas $1.2 million dollars.
What does this mean for SCSU students living on campus using music file-sharing programs?
According to Darrin Printy, IT security coordinator of information technology services at SCSU, when the school
Because the letter does not ask for indication of the user, Darrin attempts to find the person, contact them, inform them of the letter and situation, and the program and songs indicated by the letter were found on their computer.
He then asks that they please remove the program from their computers via uninstall programming.
"There are usually no problems after that," Printy said.
Jordan Volkenant, a third-year SCSU student, living off-campus, says, "I never put it [music file-sharing networks] on my computer because it's bad for your computer and attracts viruses," when asked whether he used such programs as KaZaA while living on or off campus.
When asked whether there was a problem with illegal music file-sharing here on campus, Printy responded, "We have technology on campus that allows us to decide what the most important use for the internet." Because of this technology, Printy says that these programs, "don't work very well on campus."
In response to how many letters indicating such file-sharing being used he receives in a school year Printy said, "About a dozen," and, "So far this year we have only gotten one."