The bitter battle over illegal downloads continues with a woman in the US recently fined US$1.9 million for downloading 24 songs through the Kazaa peer–to–peer file sharing network. Jammie Thomas-Rasset had formerly been convicted of the same offence in 2007 and fined $274,000. Back then she struck a sympathetic judge who threw the case out of court, describing the fine as ‘wholly disproportionate’. Six major US record companies were represented in the more recent case. The fine amounts to around $100,000 per track.

In December last year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it would focus less on suing individuals and instead put pressure on internet service providers. The RIAA has filed around 35,000 lawsuits against illegal downloaders. Most have settled out of court for between $3,000 and $5,000. Thomas-Rasset refused a settlement and a jury took five hours to find her guilty.
Closer to home, I’ve noticed a spate of industry–sanctioned free downloads lately. It seems that Australian artists are now expected to offer their singles for free through such outlets as myspace and Triple J in exchange for promotion and airplay.

Just as I was contemplating the gathering collection of USB sticks floating around the bottom of my handbag, I read that an ex-industry entrepreneur has come up with the idea of selling music on a USB drive that can carry not only MP3s of the tunes but extras like videos and lyrics. I don’t know if it will take off, but at least someone is putting forward a solution. Do you download? Do you pay? Would you buy music on a USB?