
Jammie Thomas-Rasset broke down in tears while taking the stand yesterday, as her file-sharing retrial came to a close. According to the RIAA, Vivendi Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner Music, Thomas-Rasset is not only a file-sharing thief, but is a "massive online distributor" of copyrighted tunes using Kazaa. Claiming that extortion and false testimony had been used against her by said organizations, Thomas-Rasset went on to proclaim to the jury that she "didn't even know there was a Swedish death metal genre." So how could she have downloaded it? The inconsistencies surrounding Thomas-Rasset's testimonies were indeed many and tear-soaked, but wherever the truth actually lies, the jury has yet to make a decision. Stay tuned... [Ars Techinica]
Why do we let these greedy, rich arsholes persecute us? We shouldn't take their abuse. We should rise up against them. The RIAA members should pay for destroying a family over petty crimes. It's this type of bureaucracy that is slowly destroying us.
Ripley
Jammie Thomas Rasset has been making headlines as a person who has been made an example of, who really doesn't deserve it. Jammie Thomas Rasset has been sued by the RIAA for illegal downloading from Kazaa, and they want some instant cash to the tune of $1.9 million, for downloading 24 songs – 2 CDs worth. Intellectual property needs to be preserved, but given the history of the music industry, even a casual examination reveals that they only care about the gravy train, rather than the artist's intellectual property, and many recording contracts give almost all licensing to the record companies, which is who is behind the huge need for cash advance loans of epic proportions for Jammie Thomas Rasset.
Kelly