Are file sharing fines reasonable?

An American court has ordered a 32 year-old woman to pay $222,000 (£109,000) in damages after she was found guilty of illegally sharing 1,072 songs online (using Kazaa, pictured).

Around 26,000 lawsuits against illegal file sharers have been filed to date, but the defendant - Minnesotan Jammie Thomas - was the first to contest the charges rather than settle out of court, causing the fine to dramatically increase.

Do you think this fine is justified? How do you think the problem of illegal file sharing should be tackled?

Your comments

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Graham from Wirral says:

Jul 14, 17:23

Nothing worth sharing anyway these days!

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Suzanne from Sussex says:

Mar 29, 17:08

Yes. It is stealing.

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BigC from Brighton says:

Feb 10, 04:37

I download from Usenet... if I particularly like or want something I'll go buy it so I can have the real thing, otherwise I'll keep the mp3's and burn to CD. Let's face it with bulk CD's from 10p a go, and broadband.. it's a bit of a no brainer.

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steve from bristol says:

Jan 11, 12:02

ref Nige from South Wiltshire says:
thanks for that

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Nige from South Wiltshire says:

Jan 6, 11:02

In response to Steve from Bristol.
Yes it is still illegal, the paid for Limewire is only so you can get faster downloads and better search results.
Here's a link which explains it in greater detail... http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_downloading_songs_from_Limewire_illegal_or_legal

Overall, I wouldnt worry about it being illegal, just keep on downloading and enjoying.

If the Companies were not so greedy in the first place and priced their Cd's and DVD's at an affordable price, then we would not be having this debate.

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Are file sharing fines reasonable?

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