Washington - A court in the United States laid down a 1.9-million-dollar fine against a Minnesota woman who illegally downloaded 24 songs from the internet, CNN reported. The trial against Jammie Thomas-Rasset was the first case in the United States for such copyright infringement, CNN quoted her lawyer as saying.
The 32-year-old mother of four was shocked by the fine as the price tag for legally downloading the songs that would have cost 99 cents each and planned to appeal, he said.
Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of having illegally downloaded music by No Doubt, Sheryl Crow, Gloria Estefan and Linkin Park. The court put a 80,000-dollar fine on every single copyright violation.
It is the second trial of the case, after a judge ordered a retrial in 2007. In the first trial, Thomas-Rasset was fined only 220,000 dollars.
A spokeswoman of the Recording Industry Association of America said the body was "pleased" that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable, CNN reported.
