The news today has been full of the story of the US mum who’s been found guilty of file-sharing. She has been ordered to pay $1.9 million (£1.2m) in the only file-sharing case to go to trial in the US.
To me the fine seems to be so out of this world, I understand she’s done wrong and needs to pay a punishment, but I don’t understand why it is $1.9 million, that does seem excessive, and she’ll never be able to pay it.
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, mother of four from Minnesota was accused of illegally sharing 24 songs from artists including Sheryl Crow and Green Day.
Outside the courtroom Thomas-Rasset said the damages were “ridiculous”.
A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America said the companies were willing to settle out of court for a much smaller amount.
Most people targeted by the music industry had settled for around £1,500 each.
Record companies accused Thomas-Rasset of uploading 1,700 songs to the Kazaa file-sharing site before it became a legal service.
It is easy to knock G+ for lots of inactive accounts but that has constantly thrown at Twitter too. Friends that set up accounts have not really engaged with it – think they see not much happening and then given up. I have found that I am meeting mostly new people on it and engaging with brands. Discussions are much easier to follow than on Twitter. Heard great things about Google Hangouts but not tried it yet. Do like being able to filter messages through circles. I think overall G+ needs to find its unique selling point. It is not really a place to keep updated with good friends so won’t attract most Facebookers and is not great for quick comments on communal events like Twitter. Regardless of the bad press can’t see Google pulling it anytime soon. They have integrated it too much into everything else they do for it to disappear
Thanks Chris for the comment. I think you’re completely right, until Google finds its unique selling point it won’t develop the momentum it could have.
Yay, someone else too stupid to work it out. You need to add yourself to some circles, there is plenty of stuff on G+ but you need to opt in…