music > Meet John Doe by Nick Mamatas" href="http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0510,mamatas,61813,22.html">village voice > music > Meet John Doe by Nick Mamatas

There's a great article here by a man who was recently sued in one of the RIAA's "John Doe" lawsuits. It's a pretty frightening read for most of us, I'm sure. It looks as though the RIAA is settling for $3,000-$7,000 dollars, and if you go to court, expect a judge to nail you $700 per song you downloaded. It also seems that the RIAA is targeting folks who share lots of files. The theme of the article is that playing the P2P game is sorta like the reverse of the lottery; you have a very small chance of losing, but when you do, it REALLY sucks!

Thank God I don't like commercial music! But I do pity all those folks who do. What's more, I'm really ashamed of a nation that makes it a federal crime to share with our neighbors. What kind of society are we forming with this kind of tyranny?