Pay up

On Page 2 of its letter to Harrison, Dunlap Grubb Weaver said that if Harrison chose not to pay, the law firm would name him in a suit and that the law allowed Voltage to ask for up to $30,000 per illegally shared film.

Dunlap also said that if it could prove the infringement was intentional rather than negligent, it could seek $150,000 per film. It should be noted that no individual file sharer has ever been required to pay an amount even remotely close to that sum for a single infringing act. A jury ordered Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota woman accused by the RIAA of illegally sharing 24 songs, to pay $80,000 per song, but the judge in the case lowered the damages award to $2,250 per song.

The letter from Dunlap is similar to those once sent out by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA stopped suing individuals for illegal file sharing in 2008.