Take a look at this woman's face. It could be the face of a family member. Or a good friend. It may even be the slightly stunned expression - with cheap shades cum hair fillet - staring out from the bathroom mirror. (I always look a little side-swiped in the morning.)

Thats' right! Take a good look at the face of Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Today, she's the copyright infringement Joan of Arc who's been broken on the turntable of the music industry!

But, tomorrow, it could be you!

Jammie just got jammed with an almost $2 million fine for downloading and sharing 24 songs on the internet. Don't bother jumping on the Metacalc site - I'll bust down the figures for you ('cause I've already read the story): That averages out to $80,000 per song Jammie must pay to get out of this... well... jam.

That's right!

I couldn't believe it either. A two-million dollar fine? She's a working-class single-mom of four. She'll be paying it off until the year 2166 - when the real Enterprise will embark on a real five-year mission to go where no human has gone before.

Jammie probably feels she's in a fix where few humans have been before. Without a paddle!

I don't want to make light of this. (I just can't help myself.) Download piracy is a huge problem in the industry, at least, according to the Recording Industry Association of America: 

One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.  For copies of the report, please visit www.ipi.org.

Those figures are a little hard to swallow, now, since the recording industry has been in a financial tailspin for years. Several factors for slumping sales have been bandied about: Competition from DVDs and video games, the general economic recession that started accelerating last summer, and even a shift away from albums as favored music media for the first time in 40 years. 

Here's a simpler answer: Maybe current music sucks. Wonder if they ever thought of that?

The music industry is getting desperate. It's even proposing a tax on each song radio stations play in their formats; broadcasters are rightly incensed at paying the penalty for an enterntainment sector that just may be bleeding income because of bad management decisions - and continuing to prop up artists and entire musical genres that fewer and fewer listeners want to hear.

Somehow, I doubt anyone will consider front-office suits deserve a Bammie for lowering the boom on Jammie, bad bamma-jamma, or no. This reeks of "sending a message" - of making Jammie the example put on the chopping block to send a fuzz-tone of terror through the hearts of anyone foolish enough to think they can zip off Lady GaGa to a friend across town and not pay the piper.

The $1.92 million verdict against a Minnesota woman accused of sharing 24 songs over the Internet could ratchet up the pressure on other defendants to settle with the recording industry -- if the big fine can withstand an appeal.

The industry has put the screws to about 35,000 people over the last few years, accusing them of piracy. One wonders where this thing will end. News is now the plaintiff labels want to settle with Jammie for a few grand.

Don't do it, Jammie! Chin up! Jelly tight!