There is a bigger issue though, and a bigger crime... the crime of music being hijacked in the latter part of the twentieth century as a subsidiary wing of MegaGreedCorps. The actions of the global music industry are not about protection of artists: they're all about the protection of the industry's self appointed right to maintain it's grip on the biggest slice of the pie. Everything else (after the costs of wasting the courts time with this ridiculous persecution of a single, random individual) is vindictive profiteering.

I also second what Leeneia said. Even if you take the prices set by the iTunes racketeers as industry standard (79 cents a track in the US, I believe) this feller would have had to do a hell of a lot of downloading to ratchet up a fine like that.

Gnu, your argument presupposes that judges always get it right and are never swayed by lobbying, their own political convictions and prejudices and the insidious influence of big business. I'm not justifying piracy, far from it, just turning my guns on the bigger criminals. Gnu, please trust me when I say I'm disagreeing with you in a spirit of respect and love ;-)

I think we need a dedicated folk music download store. I wish I had the technical nous to do it. If anyone else has and wants supporters/investors, I'm willing to do my part. Sort of like a fairly priced, folktastic, homespun iTunes, where the artist gets the bulk of the profits and that can serve as model for how music can be distributed in a post-celebrity culture where production, manufacture and distribution is informed by the need to conserve our precious natural resources. It could exist across national boundaries and act as a service for independent musicians and fans alike. Woven Wheat Whispers here in the UK did a great job of starting something like this up, but unfortunately had to close. Maybe it was a radical idea whose time came a little too early.

Sorry to hog this thread, but its something I feel very strongly about.