The land of the almost free has once again put corporate interests above those of individuals and has ordered a Minnesota woman who illegally downloaded and shared songs to pay $1.5 million to Capitol Records. Seeing how this amount will cover the damage for a staggering number of 24 songs, it would suggest that Capitol Record makes $62,500 per song over the course of 4 years (musicians, take note!).

Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s has been fighting in court since she has originally been charged about four years ago. This was the third time she appeared in court with all three decisions going in favor of the RIAA. This time around, the RIAA was pretty glad that the jury recognized “the severity of the defendant's misconduct” and hopes that Ms. Thomas-Rasset’s will finally accept responsibility for her actions.

Thomas-Rasset is not giving up though and her attorney Kiwi Camara confirmed this by saying that "the fight continues." They intend to bring their case to the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, Judge Davis, who is no stranger to this case. In fact, earlier this year he reduced the previous court-ordered damages calling the figure of $1.9 million “monstrous and shocking”.

Despite the obvious need to either adapt or miss the evolution train, the music recording industry still chooses to pursue and blame individuals for their lack of inventiveness, which is as Don Quixotish as it gets. Unfortunately, in their spare time when the industry is not diligently recording uninspired, washed up bands and shoving them down our throats, this seems to be the best they can come up with. We just wonder how long will it take until we’re all in this article.