If you thought that the Recording Industry Association of American had cooled down on their rampage against consumers illegally downloading copyrighted music, you'd be wrong - very, very wrong. In fact it seems as though their treatment of offenders has only gotten worse. On Thursday a federal jury found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the internet, and fined her $80,000 each for 24 songs. That's a grand total of $1.9 million.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, said her attorney Joe Sibley, who added that his client was shocked at the fine. She noted that the price for the songs was normally just 99 cents, and plans to appeal the decision.

A spokesperson for the RIAA said that they were "pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable." She added, "We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do."

Amongst the songs Thomas-Rasset downloaded were those by artists including Sheryl Crow, Gloria Estefan, No Doubt, and Linkin Park.

This was Thomas-Rasset's second trial in the matter. In 2007, the judge ordered a retrial after an error in the wording of jury instructions. The fines imposed during this second trial, however, jumped considerably - from $220,000 the first time to now $1.9 million.