RIAA: Jammie Thomas snubbed our settlement “Overture”

 In my industry of choice, I have made myself aware of some of legal issues that exist in the realm of the entertainment business.  The music entertainment industry of today is faced with legal issues that include cases of music copyright lawsuits, and file sharing. File sharing has stricken the laws and continues to  make a negative impact on the legal aspects of music industry. Moreover, in the music industry today a lot of illegal situations occur that leads to a person being criminally prosecuted, sued and held willfully responsible for the severity of their misconduct. Piracy and copyright issues occur more frequently now than any other legal misconduct issues.

I read some interesting articles from www.riaa.com , (Recording Industry Association of America) and I found a particular article about a woman from Minneapolis, Minnesota named as Jammie Thomas-Rasset who was prosecuted on several different criminal charges including file-sharing on peer-to-peer network KaZaA. Furthermore, the offender Jammie Thomas was sued for $1.9 million by music labels. She was held liable to pay 80,000 for each of the 24 songs that she was ultimately found guilty of illegally sharing. The court opposed her to pay just $222,000, which was a step backward following her first trial. She was found guilty of willful copyright infringement and ordered by a judge to pay an additional $1.9 million during this particular trial.

However, there is a chance that she could walk away from the nearly $2 million damage award by declaring bankruptcy, legal experts have said. The interesting twist to the story is that she would have to prevail another trial in bankruptcy court. In contrast, the justice system is going to have to prove that she had malicious intent, or meant to cause harm, when she illegally shared files. The legal system will be faced with a more legal -based challenged situation if they decided take the trial to bankruptcy court in order to ultimately make her pay for her actions which is often difficult to do. It consists of issuing a subpoena to a criminal trail, and trying to convince a bankruptcy judge not to allow her to wipe out her debt.

Situations like these become very detrimental to the character of potential candidates who want to pursue a career or want to establish ownership of an entertainment company one day. As the music industry’s legal system crime rates increase,  laws will become stricter by the criminal justice system. This creates more legal constraints on the future population of business entrepreneurs who have less knowledge about the legal aspects and dilemma’s that comes along with being a C.E.O, Singer, Rapper, or songwriter. In conclusion the only way to keep our businesses out of legal situations is by educating oneself about the laws of music production and keeping yourself updated about the entertainment industry’s news of today. By doing so you will become less prone or subject to committing illegal acts, and facing severe situations that results in your company’s action's leading to illegal misconduct.  Self-Awareness is the key to gaining knowledge of the subject of law pertaining to the music industry. If you plan to become an entertainment professional, please become aware of the legal issues leading to prosecution of defender’s in a court of law. Continue to “research” and "increase" your knowledge of legal constraits, terminology and criminal sanctions that govern the entertainment industry of today. For more information go to www.riaa.com and research articles pertaining to criminal misconduct associated within the entertainment business.