Cuban Says RIAA Damages Should be $5 Per Month

Thomas Hawk writes "Mark Cuban is arguing over at Blog Maverick that with the introduction of Yahoo!'s new $5 per month music service that this needs to become the new de facto 'damages' that the RIAA ought to be able to claim when suing kids. After all, when the kids could have paid for the music via Yahoo! for $5 a month it makes it hard to say the music loss is worth more than that. 'The RIAA can no longer claim that students who are downloading music are costing them thousands of dollars each. They cant claim much of anything actually. In essence, Yahoo just turned possession of a controlled music substance into a misdemeanor. Payable by a $5 per month fine.'"

Comments

Silly statement

[AKAImBatman]

Mark Cuban is arguing over at Blog Maverick that with the introduction of Yahoo!'s new $5 per month music service that this needs to become the new de facto 'damages' that the RIAA ought to be able to claim when suing kids.

That's a nice sentiment, but I'm afraid the law doesn't work that way. Part of the damages are punative, and part of the damages are intended to offset losses from a chain of piracy started by the individual. i.e. Because he didn't pay his $5, now hundreds of others won't pay their five dollars, and may even incite others to not pay their five dollars.

I'm not saying that the current laws are good (the music industry did make their own problem by not responding to market pressures), but they aren't as cut and dry as suggested either.