It is not fascism if you own the copyright.

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: Time for Brainerd woman to face the music: A $222,000 fine

In a verdict the recording industry praised as a warning to people who illegally download and share songs on the Internet, a federal jury in Duluth on Thursday found that a Brainerd, Minn., woman violated the copyrights of six recording companies and should pay them $222,000.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated less than five hours before deciding that Jammie Thomas, operating under the user name "Tereastarr" on the Kazaa file-sharing network, copied or distributed all 24 songs for which the companies sought compensation, and it set damages at $9,250 per song.

This was the first case of its type to go to trial, and whether such verdicts will change the habits of many music downloaders or help alter downward trends in the recording industry is uncertain. Richard Gabriel, lead attorney for the industry on the case, seemed to acknowledge as much in his closing argument to the jury.

"People who do this on Kazaa don't think they're going to get caught, and with the millions of them out there, the odds are slim we're going to catch them all."

Thomas, a single mother of two who works for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, steadfastly denied downloading or distributing any music and declined to comment as she left the courthouse with her attorney, Brian Toder of Minneapolis. Asked if they're considering an appeal, Toder replied: "We haven't talked about it."

Where are Russell Means and Ward Churchill when we could use a laugh?