US citizen fined $1.9 million over file-sharing

A woman from the US has been fined over $1.9 million for sharing music files illegally on the internet.

A jury in the United States has ruled that a woman accused of copyright infringement must pay a fine of over $1.9 million (£1.2 million).

Jammie Thomas-Rasset was ordered to pay the money to four major record labels after she was found to have downloaded and shared 24 music tracks online.

The 32-year-old mother of four, from Minnesota, used the Kazaa peer-to-peer network to obtain songs by major recording artists.

She described the $1.9 million sum - which works out at $80,000 a track - as "kind of ridiculous" and insisted there is "no way" she can pay it.

It is the second time that Ms Thomas-Rasset has appeared in court over the intellectual property issue.

In 2007 she was ordered to pay $220,000 in damages for copyright infringement, but the verdict was thrown out because it was felt that the judge misled the jury.

The Recording Industry Association of America said it has attempted to settle the case with the defendant prior to the trial.

Spokesperson Cara Duckworth said: "Since day one we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so."

The organisation said it hopes the latest ruling will discourage others from downloading music illegally over the internet.

There have been several high-profile cases relating to file-sharing in recent months, including the jailing of the founders of Swedish website the Pirate Bay.

In Spain, the software designer behind three popular file-sharing programmes - Pablo Soto - is being sued by record label association Promusicae.