A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said.

Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at the fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents.

She plans to appeal, he said.

Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the association was "pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable."

"We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do," she said.

Thomas-Rasset downloaded work by artists such as No Doubt, Linkin Park, Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow.

This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. The judge ordered a retrial in 2007 after there was an error in the wording of jury instructions.

The fines jumped considerably from the first trial, which granted just $220,000 to the recording companies.

Thomas-Rasset is married with four children and works for an Indian tribe in Minnesota.

But downloading something for personal use isn't sinful or illegal is it???

As far as I know, downloading the contents of a copyrighted music CD without paying for it would be a venial sin.

I've heard cases of priests downplaying the seriousness of it -- but I'm not sure if they are correct. Maybe they didn't understand the penitent's question?

A deacon at the seminary I used to attend talked about this issue -- and this was a man who Bishop Williamson would use as a reference manual at times (since the deacon was studying it currently, and Bishop Williamson obviously had learned it years ago). He is now a priest, and he is intelligent with a good memory.

Anyhow, he said that downloading expensive software (pirating software) would be grave matter due to the value of it. Photoshop is worth $600 or so. Microsoft Office is worth $700 or so.

CDs don't add up nearly as fast, being worth only $15 apiece.

Long story short, it's worth paying for the music you listen to -- Purgatory is much more expensive than the stupid 99 cents a song would cost you if you paid for it legitimately.

Matthew

Yes, Telephorus, but two wrongs don't make a right.  The court system in this case is far more criminal than the woman who downloaded her handful of ditties.  But the question is not, did she break the law and receive a fair trial, it was "Did she SIN?"  She probably doesn't care about that question but I do.  

I listened to a burned CD the other day and it hit me "You might be sinning."  That got me thinking.  I'd say it's not a sin if you are listening to the CD in order to sample it, to decide if you like it before buying.  Obviously if you listen to it 10,000 times while saying to yourself "I don't like it, I just have to listen to this song that is dumb but catchy ONCE more" then you are not being very honest with yourself.  

If you listen to it once or twice and then make a firm decision "I never want to hear this garbage again," and you get rid of the burned CD, then it's okay.  It would be the equivalent of listening to it in the store, or hearing a song on the radio or YouTube.  

I also allow myself to burn out-of-print CDs.  But keeping a library of burned CDs that you have no intention to pay for as hard copy strikes me as definitely sinful.  Even before becoming Catholic I had a crisis of conscience over my thousands of burned CDs.

The good news is that when you become Catholic you realize how most music is not worth listening to.  It was easy to throw out my burned rock CDs because for the most part I have abandoned that genre of music -- unless I'm in the mood to study demon-possession.   :detective:

Please explain how an electric chair is extraordinarily Baroque as opposed to say Gothic.