In the Medford Mail Tribune on Sunday the 6th of August an article was printed about a Klamath Falls man, Leslie Maxfield was who was hit with a federal copyright infringement lawsuit for illegaly downloading music off of the internet. Maxfield had around 800 songs on his computer that he downloaded from a peer to peer sharing site on the internet. His crime has been labeled as "songlifting" and he has agreed to pay a settlement of about $5,000 which in reality he doesn't have. Now, because of this lawsuit Maxfield is afraid he might have to sell his truck to cover the costs of the lawsuit, which will hamper his ability to commute to and from work.

It is my opinion that this punishment is anything but fair. Leslie Maxfield is forced to pay $5,000 for 800 songs that he downloaded off of a website that millions of others use everyday. $5,000 dollars is a lot of money for the Klamath Falls man, so much money that the loss of that wage will have a direct effect on his everyday life. He sees this situation as the Record companies robbing him as opposed to him robbing them. I would imagine that the legal costs of the record company for suing Maxfield must have been near that amount of money. This in my mind is not an attempt by the record companies to recover lost profits, but to make an example of Maxfield and use him as a scare tactic for other internet users.

I don’t think that this is the best way to combat “song-lifting”. It seems as though they are addressing the wrong end of the problem. I don’t think that any justice was served by punishing Maxfield.