Squeezing blood out of a turnip

A 32-year-old woman from Brainerd, Minn., owes $1.92 million in damages to recording companies for downloading their music, a federal jury in Minneapolis decided Thursday.

That amounts to $80,000 a song for the 24 songs Jammie Thomas-Rasset was accused of downloading.

The damages are eight times more than Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four, was ordered to pay the first time she faced six record companies in court on claims that she downloaded more than 1,700 songs. The judge granted a retrial after deciding that he had wrongly instructed the jury.

"The only thing I can say is, 'Good luck getting it from me,'" said Thomas-Rasset, who looked tearful immediately after hearing of the decision, but then appeared resolute.