Online Pirate Faces the Music

A women found guilty of sharing 24 songs, out of 1,700 she had on offer through her Kazaa account, will have to pay $222,000 in damages for copyright infringement to a group of record labels, reports the Los Angeles Times.

That's a jury verdict of $9,250 per song. Under the copyright act, the Minnesota woman, Jammie Thomas, could have been forced to pay as much as $150,000 per infringement. The record labels involved were Arista Records, Capitol Records, Interscope Records, Sony BMG, UMG, and Warner Bros. Records. The RIAA issued a statement hailing the decision. The industry has brought 26,000 lawsuits over the past four years. 10,000 of those cases have settled, typically at less than $5,000 each.

I think the industry's victory will have some deterrent effect, but not enough to sink all the pirate ships a' sail. Ultimately - sooner rather than later - all online music will probably be unprotected MP3's, and price points will probably have to come down as well, for individual songs or for monthly subscriptions.

Marley Ring Tones Strike a Sour Note

Bob Marley's family is threatening to sue over a ring tone deal between Verizon and Universal Music, which owns the rights to the late singer's music, reports the New York Times. The family objects that the deal amounts to using Marley's trademarked persona to endorse Verizon.

Verizon disagrees, and says it has the right to advertise that it provides the ring tones. Case could turn on relatively minute details of the advertising.

UMG Sues Veoh

Universal Music Group is suing Veoh for copyright infringement, based on alleged "massive" copyright infringement by the site's users, Forbes reports. Ironically, one of Veoh's backers is Michael Eisner, former head of CAA and, briefly, CEO of Disney. Veoh counters that it is protected by the DMCA safe harbor rules for internet providers.