Ear Shot: How This Pirate Was Fined $1.5 Mil

It’s more than a little ironic that of the 24 songs Minnesota single mom Jammie Thomas-Rasset downloaded from peer-to-peer network KaZaa in 2005 — an action that would land her on the receiving end of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit initiated by the major record companies — one is the Destiny’s Child hit “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Ordered to pay $1.5 million by a federal jury in Minneapolis, a landmark decision in that it’s the third and most decisive verdict in a string of appeals, the 33-year-old Native American housewife, who makes less than $40,000 a year, is likely looking at a lifetime of them, legal and otherwise (her defense team worked pro bono), in her one-woman war against the music industry.