new york city MUSIC

A Minnesota court has ordered Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay the music industry , including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment [an excessive] $1.92 million after posting 24 copyrighted songs on Kazaa for other users to download. The award amounts to $80,000 for each song she uploaded to website In 2007 Ms.Thomas-Rasset was originally ordered to pay $222,000 ($9,250 per song) in damages. A retrial was decided after Judge Michael J. Davis of the U.S. District Court withdrew the verdict after providing the jury with false information. Following the $1.92 million verdict, Thomas-Rasset expressed her disappointment saying , "The only thing I can say is good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip.” She is a natural resources coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibw. Kiwi Camara of Camara & Sibley (her lawyer) claims that Thomas-Rasset may try to negotiate a settlement or appeal the verdict. Other lawyers of T...

Universal Music Group and Virgin Media in partnership announced Monday that they would now offer unlimited downloads to enforce anti-piracy. With this new business model, Universal will be offering its entire music catalog (free of copy protection) to Virgin Media customers as monthly subscriptions but did not yet announce the cost of this service. Virgin Media will then work to reduce piracy on its network in return. In reaction (positive) to the new deal, Stephen Carter, British communications, broadcast, and technology minister said: " Government has a role in creating the right legal and regulatory framework for rights and copyright. However, the market will flourish through innovative commercial agreements between companies, and agreements such as this will help significantly in reducing any demand for piracy." Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research said, " This is a really high-stakes game, Universal and Virgin have come to the table with all they ca...