Music downloader ordered to pay $675K

This has got to suck.

A graduate student from Providence, R.I., who illegally downloaded and distributed 30 songs six years ago has been ordered to pay $675,000 in damages to four record labels.

For 30 songs he shared with friends. Ouch!

When Joel Tenenbaum faced trial for copyright infringement, he tried to settle the case for $5,000, but the offer was rejected and a Boston jury hit him with the hefty fine.

The 25-year-old Boston University graduate student is the second American to be taken to trial for illegally downloading music.

Tenenbaum reportedly has said he's grateful he wasn't ordered to pay millions of dollars but will have to file for bankruptcy if the verdict stands. He plans to appeal because he was not allowed to ague the case based on fair use.

During the trial, Tim Reynolds, a lawyer for the recording labels, called Tenenbaum "a hardcore, habitual, long-term infringer who knew what he was doing was wrong."

Tenenbaum (right)--who was described as "a hardcore, habitual, long-term infringer who knew what he was going was wrong" by a lawyer for the record labels--admitted he downloaded and shared songs by rock groups Green Day, Nirvana, and The Smashing Pumpkins, among others.

More than 30,000 people have settled similar cases for amounts ranging from $3,000 to $12,000, ABC News reported.

In 2007, Jammie Thomas-Rasset of Minnesota was the first person to be sued by record companies seeking damages for the illegal download and sharing of music files. She was ordered to pay $1.92 million to the labels, but her attorney says she doesn't have the money to for the damages and is asking for a new trial, according to the report.

I get it. The record companies have to make money--not good money, BIG money. But given the nearly endless opportunities the Internet offers music lovers, the labels are fighting a losing battle, if you ask me.

Source: ABC News
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
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Tiny men with tiny dicks sentence U.S. journalists to 12 years in labor prison

Unbelievable, though expected.

I've been merciless with North Korea since my first story here about the missiles the communist country recently launched (Bullies in the Sky, May 27), so what can I possibly say now that these pricks have decided to show us how remarkably powerful they are by...

...harnessing the power of the Earth's core? Nope. Being the architects of world peace? Nope. Ending malaria and hunger in third-world countries? Nope. Building spaceships that can travel to distant galaxies free from the constraints of light speed? Nope. Jailing two female U.S. journalists for unspecified "grave crimes? Yup.

Yes, North Korea's top court has convicted reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee of "hostile acts" (what acts?) against the nation and illegally crossing into the North, and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison, the country's state news agency reported Monday according to an AP report. Even rapists don't get that many years. WTF?

So we still don't know what "grave crime" or "hostile acts" they allegedly committed, and we still don't have proof that indeed they had crossed the border. So what did the prosecutors and judges do during this "trial"? Scratch their tiny balls with their pencils?

Lee (on the left) and Ling (right) cannot appeal as they were tried in North Korea's highest court where decisions are final. Nice touch.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," state-run KCNA news agency said according to a BBC report.

The sentences are much harsher than what many observers had hoped for--which proves that observing and hoping in such cases is...let's see...useless?

The June 4-8 trial was not open to the public or to foreign observers. You know what? That's bullshit. Who's to say the little men with flimsy tiny dicks weren't playing Scrabble or some Korean card game while in the courtroom those four days?

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it had no immediate comment, AP reported.

The two journalists were arrested March 17 on the China-North Korean border while working on a report about the trafficking of women. It's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. The circumstances of the arrest have been shrouded in secrecy, as is typical of the reclusive nation, AP reported.

Some believe N. Korea will use the two women as bargaining chips in its standoff with South Korea and the U.S., which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish the nation for its latest nuclear blast and barrage of missile tests. We'll see...

The women's families have appealed for clemency and asked Pyongyang and Washington not to link the case to the current diplomatic stand-off between them, BBC reported.

I certainly hope--though hoping is futile, doing...doing is what it will take, except I'm not the one to do it--that it's not too late for someone more powerful, in other words, someone with a real dick, such as Hillary, to make a difference in this case. A minimum number of inches should be required to run a country, if you ask me.

Sources: The Associated Press, BBC, My Twisted Mind
Copyright © 2009