For those of you who use P2P music sharing software, you may want to reconsider. Yesterday a Kazaa user named Jammie Thomas was charged $222,000 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sharing music on the software. A RIAA representative was actually able to download music from Jammie’s computer, proving to be evidence enough.

Under US Federal Law, music sharers are charged based on the number of songs at issue, instead of the number of times they were downloaded. This may seem like a good compromise, however, it does not change the fact that you will be slapped with a ridiculously large fine if caught sharing music. The copyright law states that you can be charged between $750 and $30,000 per song! This means if you are caught sharing your music collection of say 2000 songs, you can face between $1.5 million and $60 million in fines. I don’t know about you, but that is a charge that would leave me in debt for the rest of my life. There have been numerous cases arguing that RIAA’s charges are excessive and unconstitutional, as statued under the US Bill of rights 8^th Amendment, courts are not to impose excessive fines.

For those of you who use P2P music sharing networks such as Kazaa, let this be an eye opener for you. If you are going to use these programs, do not share your music collection; unless of course, you are a multi-millionaire who gets off on paying $60 million fines.

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