What is the punishment for illegally downloading movies and music?
Under current law, downloading copyright-infringing digital material is a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while streaming the same movie, TV show, or music file is merely a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
What is Downloading music illegally called?
Music piracy
Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners (composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company) did not give consent.
How much money do artists lose from illegal downloading?
Music theft also leads to the loss of $2.7 billion in earnings annually in both the sound recording industry and in downstream retail industries. The U.S. federal, state and local governments lose a minimum of $422 million in tax revenues annually due to piracy.
How much can you be fined for illegal downloading music?
Under federal copyright law, the damages that you may owe can range from $750 to $30,000 per work. So if you illegally download, say, 10 songs — doesn’t seem that offensive, right? Think again, because the penalty for that can be as much as $300,000. Furthermore, this is only according to statute.
Has anyone been prosecuted for illegally downloading music?
A Minnesota woman, one of the last people to be individually prosecuted in the US for illegal downloading and file-sharing, faces a $220,000 bill after a federal court ruling on Tuesday. The federal appeals court reversed a district court’s decision to reduce Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s owed damages to $54,000 from $1.5m.
Has anyone been sued downloading movies?
Recently, these lawsuits have been brought by law firms who contract with copyright holders. For example, a law firm recently sued 23,000 torrent users for downloading the movie “The Expendables.” Properly defending yourself from this type of lawsuit is complicated because each situation is different.