First File-Sharing Case On Trial; Classic FM Gramophone Awards Results; The Blu-ray vs. HD DVD Scene; Wireless iPod Dock First File-Sharing Case On Trial - In a suit brought by the four major record companies (plus Interscope and Arista), a federal jury in Duluth, MN, has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 in fines for sharing copyrighted music files online. The 30-year-old woman was ordered to pay $9,250 for each of 24 songs focused on in the case.
The suit said she downloaded the songs without permission and then offered them online thru a Kazaa file-sharing account. the woman denied wrongdoing and said she didn't have a Kazaa account. Copyright law sets the damages per infringement as ranging from $750 to $30,000.
The record companies have filed 26,000 such suits against supposed downloaders since 2003, but this is the first that has gone to trial with a decision. 6.9 million households used file-sharing programs in April of 2003 and by March of this year the number had increased to 7.
8 million. The victim's attorney said "We don't know what happened; all we know is that [my client] didn't do this.
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