Big Music lawyers, investigators, score
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Yesterday, p2pnet corrected reports that upload site Rapidshare had been ordered to pay a massive fine of €24 million ($34 million) for copyright infringement, thanks to the efforts of the GEMA, the corporate music industry’s presence in Germany.
Rather, a Hamburg court had decided the value of the GEMA claim, centering on some 5,000 MP3s, amounted to €24 million, or $34M, Gulli editor Firebird77 told us.
Obviously, GEMA hasn’t been paying attention to what’s been happening in America where Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas-Rasset was, indeed, ordered to pay a fine against 24 corporate music files she’s alleged to have infringed in some way or another.
She’s been ordered to somehow find $1.92 million, to be exact.
The supposed value of each Jammie Thomas-Raseet track? A mind-blowing $80,000.
The supposed value of each Rapidshare track? A paltry $6,688.
Even Apple iTunes prices of $1 and up per track are exorbitant.
No doubt Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music creative accountants in Germany will be desperately trying to figure out a way to balance their books along American lines.
In the meanwhile, the only people to come out of this with huge smiles on their faces are corporate music industry ‘digital forensic investigators,’ some of whom receive as much as $750 an hour, we understand, and, of course, the lawyers who start at around $375 per, and go up. Way up.
The music industry claims it’s being “devastated” (its word) by file sharers, and yet it can afford these kinds of fees, as well as the millions of dollars it’s spending on political lobbying and bribes, on its massive international campaign to have the governments compel local ISPs to become corporate copyright enforcers, on political schmoozing, and so on.
Legal costs in Germany were originally around about €657,000, p2pnet has been told. But after theHamburg trial, they will escalate to €1,400,000, based on “standard” German lawyers’ fees.
Meanwhile, Rapidshare has appealed and is waiting for Oberlandesgericht Hamburg’s final ruling on the case.
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, JP)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
corrected reports – RapidShare tracks worth $34 million, June 24, 2009
Jammie Thomas-Raseet track – Jamie Thomas-Rasset’s $1.92 million playlist, June 19, 2009
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