Woman gets slammed with huge fine for illegal song downloads

[Silverback]

Downloaded some songs for $1.92 Million. It would've been cheaper to murder someone while driving drunk.

[RangerX]

Ooh aargh.

Translation:

If you ever get pinged by the copyright nazis, just tell them you have an open wireless access point. Case dismissed. You can't sue an IP address, only a person. This woman's lawyer sucks.

Example:

http://daledietrich.com/imedia/riaa-dro ... -v-marson/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[allmylife]

$1.92 million versus 99 cent a song....
Is it true if you erase your hard drive they have no proof?

[Nomad]

$1.92 million versus 99 cent a song....
Is it true if you erase your hard drive they have no proof?

No. There are commercially available programs that cost less than $50 which will recreate your entire hard drive.

The only way to destroy a hard drive completely is by rearranging the molecular structure via the use of high powered magnets and heat. At least that's what some very geeky people at work told me.

[Silverback]

$1.92 million versus 99 cent a song....
Is it true if you erase your hard drive they have no proof?

When you format an old disk, you have two ways. Just erase the index, and the system thinks it can write to every block. This is a 'quick format' and leaves all the old information on the disk. A 'deep format' erases everything and starts over with no information on the disk.

http://www.guard-privacy-and-online-sec ... files.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

3. Can A Format Hard Drive Erase Hidden Files?
Data Wiping Standards



There are a number of secure deletion software standards, but the most referred to and reputable is the United States Department of Defense (DoD) wiping standard 5220.22-M.

This standard specifies that each data wipe should be repeated 3 times to form an overwrite wipe pass and that seven passes should be made before the data is securely erased.

Of course, this takes time and it could take a full day just to wipe the data of a medium sized hard drive.

If you are mostly worried that someone else may get access to previously stored data that isn't too sensitive, such as personal photos, music, or document files, then you should be able to rely on two to three data wipe passes.

Small to medium businesses and home users who have sensitive financial and confidential information should follow the full 5220.22-M standard.

[Baseplate]

When you get ready to throw your old computer away jut shoot it and burn it instead

[Silverback]

If I support a band I buy their CD's. Being a musician that puts thousands of dollars into equipment and many hours into recording getting returns is why we're in business. If someone stole my songs I'd sue in a heartbeat. However those fines are ridiculous, it looks like the music industry made an example of her. I came up with an idea that would give the buyer of a CD a single user license agreement which would allow them to take songs off the CD and put them on an ipod. Copyguard prevents this. Software has a licensing agreement why not music? The CD would have to be activated and registered online just like software.

This is the death rattle of the music industry as we know it. There are a bunch of people who expect money that stand between the artist and the fan, those people are being pushed out of line by new distribution methods and they don't like it.

[K.Ingraham]

The industry needs to adapt and discover new models. They cried before that new technologies were the death knell of music, theater, TV etc.
Cassette tapes were going to ruin the music industry, video cassettes were going to kill the movies etc etc.
Each time when the dinosaurs ran out of breath from whining, the entertainment industry adapted & made out even better.