Oh, I get that it's not about the money here. They just wanted a legal victory. However, the average person reading that article will just be pissed off by the fact that this woman has to pay 80,000 per song. I'm understand that she broke the law. I understand that what she did is considered (yes, even by me) to be morally wrong. And yet, I don't think that this is really helping the RIAA any.
Sure, they may get more successful lawsuits, and even make up some of their losses if they do catch some of the people who can afford to pay. But the point that I'm trying to make is that the RIAA is trying to stop something through legal procedures that can't be stopped that way. Everyone who downloads music (or anything else for that matter) illegally most likely knows what they are doing at the time. Yet most of them assume that millions of other people are doing it and they won't get caught. And they're right. Most people who illegally download music don't get caught. Because of the scale of the problem and the nature of the crime (very private and difficult to prove), they won't really be able to get to the root of the problem ever. Instead, they'll be making money off of lawsuits preying on those who probably really didn't do that much.
For example, divide 1.92 million by 80,000. 24. This woman downloaded 24 songs illegally. Really? We're expecting her to pay 1.92 million dollars for an infringement that's relatively minor compared to what some people have done. I just can't help but feel that what the RIAA is doing doesn't really move their cause along that much, and it hurts their public image.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely think that illegally downloading music is wrong. But I don't think that the RIAA is helping themselves at all.
And once again, Eerongal posted before me. Oh well, I'll leave my points up anyway.