In June, a Minneapolis jury awarded $1.92 million in a case of willful copyright infringement for 24 songs. The defendant in the case was 32 years old.
Late last week a jury decided that a 25 year old Boston University graduate student must pay four record labels a total of $675,000 in damages for the illegal downloading and sharing of 30 songs. The defendant admitted in court to uploading, downloading and sharing more than 800 songs over an 8 year period.
The huge awards in these cases may be shocking, and the young age of the defendants may afford them some sympathy, but the fact is that these individuals knowingly and willingly infringed the copyrights of musicians and their record labels.
The easy availability of digital music, ebooks and digital copies of all sorts of artwork and creative works makes it seem harmless to download, copy, share and upload anything at anytime. In a few simple clicks you can rip, upload and share music with the world. And you can download just about anything that someone else has uploaded. It’s so simple it seems victimless.
The victims, however, are the people who work hard every day to create works of art to make a living. Every copyright infringement makes a direct negative impact on the lives of these artists.
Copyright infringement is a crime. If you participate in it at all, you’re a thief.
Just because you can steal music, books or other works of art doesn’t make it right.
