Two Men Indicted on Pre-Release Music Piracy Charges

Two men were indicted yesterday on charges of illegally sharing music on the internet before it was even released.

Robert Thomas of Wisconsin and Jared Bowser of Florida are accused of posting selections from the Ryan Adams’ album “Jacksonville City Nights” on fan websites. The album had not yet been released by Nashville-based Lonely Highway Records.

If convicted, Thomas and Bowser could face up to 11 years in prison.

Jim Vines is the US Attorney for Middle Tennessee; his office is prosecuting the case. Vines says internet sharing of music files has wrongfully earned a reputation as a victimless crime.

“Even though you can’t see them or touch them and they don’t have that tangible aspect of something you would walk into the store and buy, they’re nevertheless the complete work product of those artists and not just the artists, but various people in the music industry, the distribution chain, that’s their means of livelihood, and these people are stealing from their means of livelihood just as though they might be stealing a tangible product out of a retail store.”

Vines says this is the first case of pre-release piracy to be prosecuted in Nashville by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section of the US Attorney’s office. The Nashville CHIP Unit was set up less than a year ago. In recent years, CHIP has seen a growing number of similar cases in New York and Los Angeles.