Thursday, February 10, 2005

something's wrong here

Good article on the HUGE disparity between the penalties for actual stealing and those for downloading. These numbers are illustrative of the unreasonableness of the music industry's stance:

Stealing Infringing
Absolute
Minimum
$0
no jail
$4,400
Absolute
Maximum
$100,000
1 year jail
$3,400,000
1 year jail
lawyer fees and costs
Real World
Example
Winona Ryder*:
$2,700 fine
$6,355 restitution
$1,000 court cost
3 years probation
An Average RIAA settlement**:
$14,875