RIAA wins $22 million in damages from MP3Skull

So at least the RIAA won't get a penny. Good job too!

Well most people do not know what happens when there is a win on a lawsuit and the person cannot pay the bill right. Usually the judge gets creative on how to get the person to pay them back. This may include community service and/or prison time.

Originally posted by Admiral_Smith:

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Well most people do not know what happens when there is a win on a lawsuit and the person cannot pay the bill right. Usually the judge gets creative on how to get the person to pay them back. This may include community service and/or prison time.

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But the defendant (the owner)resides in Russia so they can ignore the court, I guess.

Originally posted by Admiral_Smith:

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Well most people do not know what happens when there is a win on a lawsuit and the person cannot pay the bill right. Usually the judge gets creative on how to get the person to pay them back. This may include community service and/or prison time.

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Not for a civil case, even if the defendant was a US citizen! I'm sorry, but you're confusing civil (tort) law with criminal law, a common error that even the RIAA/MPAA makes. Pirating IP is NOT "theft", and therefore a crime,; it's an "intellectual property violation", a civil case.

If you simply cannot pay outright, the judge is likely to garnish a percentage of wages or - in extreme cases - force the sale of some assets, although there are legal limits on what can or cannot be garnished or sold off this way (you can't take their only car, their only house, and so on).

Refusing to pay, however, when you demonstrably can do so, can cause the judge to hold you in contempt of court; only then would a criminal penalty apply, and legally that penalty can ONLY be for the contempt, itself, not the original civil case. In other words, a judge could lock you up for doing so, and even FORCE payment by some method if you have the funds somewhere, but s/he couldn't change the amount awarded, beyond simple interest for lack of payment.

I believe there are also some statutes relating to jurisdiction and travel and such; if the owner can make a case that it is unreasonable to force her to travel half way around the world for a civil case in a court that doesn't even speak her language, that won't affect anything in the USA, but it would give her protection in Russia. That's probably why she didn't even bother to send a lawyer for a case that she could have won easily.