A panel discussion on music file-sharing will take place October 30th and OU grad-turned-RIAA-voicebox Jonathan Lamy will be there.

On the heels of a successful verdict against Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two who makes $36,000 a year and is ordered to pay the RIAA $220,000, Lamy and other pro-RIAA speakers will no doubt spend their time vigorously scolding and threatening student guests.

"Our objective here is not to be in court, it is to try and communicate a message that there is a consequence to when you steal music and you break the law," Lamy said shortly after the verdict.

But according to an article at News.com, Ms. Thomas did not steal music: the jury found her guilty only of making 24 songs available for download online. That figures out to be more than $9,100 per song.

It should come as no surprise that this prominent spokesperson for the RIAA would find his alma mater listed among the first wave of pre-settlement litgation notices. In April, the RIAA sent out 50 letters to 80 OU students (those who shared the same dorm room received complimentary duplicates). The letter demanded the student pay $3,000 or risk further monetary losses in a copyright infringement trial.

"Every letter that gets forwarded on makes the RIAA's extortion effort a little easier," an attorney was quoted as saying in The Post. Extortion, as defined by Wikipedia, is "when a person either obtains money, property or services from another through coercion or intimidation." While a jury has yet to call RIAA's pre-litigation letters "extortion," there are a number of cases that have attempted to do so, often comparing their efforts to the likes of Al Capone.

The reality seems to be that the RIAA is fighting a losing battle against technology that makes the days of buying music CD's obsolete. Why pay for one good song and eight lousy ones for $18 when you can pick the track you like on iTunes for less than a buck?

Tags: Ohio University RIAA file sharing Jonathan Lamy Jammie Thomas mp3 itunes extortion p2p napster kazaa