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Have you been spending time on Lime Wire or Kazaa downloading your favorite tunes? You might want to reconsider.
A jury verdict favored the US Department of Justice against someone accused of downloading music illegally. The defendant, Mark Shumaker, 21, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine up to $250,000.
This is one of the first online music piracy cases to go to trial. The jury was fast and fierce to render a unanimous guilty verdict, according to Brad Buckles, vice president of The Recording Industry Assoc. of America (RIAA), who helped to gather evidence against the APC.
The crimes committed and the damage to the music community are severe in nature and therefore so are the consequences.
Pioneers to music piracy, the APC group arranges pre-release uploading of MP3 music files. Shumaker allegedly participated in the group for almost a year. So far, 15 APC members have been convicted.
APC members are different than the typical Lime Wire user in that the group is sophisticated and specializes in releasing copyrighted music on the internet.
Music theft over the internet is a serious crime, and the jury verdict shows the Justice Department means business. Those who chose to blatantly distribute copyrighted music on the internet should know and fully understand – that jail time and federal prosecution are real and true possibilities.
Mark Shumaker assisted in supplying and releasing albums online before they hit the shelves at retail stores and ran group’s chat channel.
The RIAA, who is currently in the process of issuing subpoenas to obtain the identities of individual file swappers as a prelude to filing civil copyright infringement lawsuits, was ecstatic to hear the jury returned a prompt guilty plea.
Source: Half Life Source.
