Crime Does Pay

The penalties of sin.

About four years ago, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a youngMinnesota mother of four, decided to save a few bucks on some music files soshe signed up with the file sharing network, Kazaa.  If you aren’t familiar with Kazaa or other sites like them,the arrangement is pretty simple. In non-technical terms, if you belong to the group, whenever you log into the site you are able to have access to the music files of other membersacross the country who are also logged in.  So if someone has a song you want, you simply click it andit downloads onto your computer. Fun, fast and best of all (so Jammie thought) FREE!

There has been an ongoing battle between the recordingindustry and these file sharing sites about lost revenues and artists not beingcompensated for their creations. At any rate it all caught up with Ms. Thomas-Rasset.  She was taken to court in 2007 after itwas discovered that she had downloaded 24 songs through Kazaa.  Those same songs could be purchased online at any number of sites for less than $1.00 each.

The trial in 2007 resulted in a jury finding her guilty andassessing a fine of $222,000 for copyright infringement.  She appealed.  Her lawyers found an error in jury instructions and she wasgranted a new trial.  This time thejury assessed the fine at 1.92 million dollars.  The judge thought the fine was too high, so he lowered it to$54,000.  She appealed thatjudgment too.

The record industry offered to settle the case for $25,000but she refused and so a third trial ending last month resulted in a new fine…1.5million dollars.  That breaks downto $62,500 per song.  For that kindof money, she could have sent all four of her children to the JulliardConservatory of Music and produced whatever songs she wanted to hear. 

Now I’ll have to admit, one and a half million sounds a bithigh to me, but the point is, you can’t steal without penalty.   And I’ll grant you that whatJammie did has been done by lots of people who never really thought of it asstealing.  It’s not exactly armedrobbery, but the fact remains, our actions make us accountable.

To take the biblical perspective, I’d have to say that aperson can’t sin without ramifications…and sometimes the penalty is quitehigh.  Many people who take thegrace of God a bit too lightly might have forgotten about passages like Hebrews10:26-27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have receivedthe knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearfulexpectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.  

 Wow,that sounds like a pretty expensive judgment too.  But, when you think about it, the cost of our sin hasalready exacted an extreme payoff. The sinless Son of God was allowed to suffer and die for sins he nevercommitted.  Why wouldn’t there be ahigh price for our careless disregard of that gift?

 Whenyou boil it all down, crime really does pay…it just doesn’t pay the onecommitting the crime.  God has aright to expect a holy transformation in our lives whereby we value the pricealready paid for our sins and we make it a high priority to get out of thesinning business so no other payments will be necessary.