Friday, June 19, 2009

What happens to all that Jammie money?

The US $1.92 million copyright infringement award in favour of the Recording Industry Association of America (see 1709 Blog here) against single mother-of-four Jammie Thomas-Rasset works out at $80,000 per infringed track. This post does not seek to replicate the comments of others but just to ask this: what happens to the $1.92m in the event that it gets paid? How transparent are RIAA's accounts? Does it simply sit in the RIAA's coffers? Or does it get allocated to a litigation enforcement fund? How much, if any, is received by the individual recording companies whose works are infringed, and how much, if any, by the creatives?

Can anyone advise?