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?
The RIAA wasn't the plaintiff in the suit (although we colloquially call it a suit brought on behalf of the RIAA). Instead it was a suit brought by a series of labels (copyright owners) that was coordinated by the RIAA. I'd assume that the damages will be allocated amongst the plaintiffs by infringing works.
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