Is sharing stealing? If you purchase a song, can you freely share it with others? Or is that stealing? If you were still wondering, then wonder no longer, because the verdict is in.

RT.com reports: An American woman from Minnesota accused of sharing songs online will have to pay for her passion for downloading. A Federal appeals court has ruled she owes record companies $222,000 for willful copyright infringement.

The industry presented evidence that Jammie Thomas-Rasset made available over 1,700 songs to other computer users via the file sharing service Kazaa, though the lawsuit targeted only 24 songs.

The woman’s case appears to be one of only two lawsuits to go to trial out of more than 30,000 filed by the recording industry, The Associated Press reported. 

“We are pleased with the appellate court’s decision and look forward to putting this case behind us,” the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement.

Sure they are. They’re back to forcing people to pay nearly $20.00 for a CD with only a couple of good tracks, or $1.00 per song on iTunes.

Either way, this is a win for the recording industry. The question, however, remains as to whether this woman should’ve been fined over $200,000 for file sharing? For comparison’s sake, consider that the bankers who engineered the greatest economic recession in our lifetimes were bailed out, and haven’t been charged with anything. Given that, you have to ask yourself whether the punishment outweighs the crime. What do you think? Was this the right decision?

– Kulture Kritic