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Jammie Appeals, Citing "Excessive" Damages
Peerless writes "Capitol v. Thomas defendant Jammie Thomas has officially appealed the RIAA's $222,000 copyright infringement award. She is seeking a retrial to determine the RIAA's actual damages, arguing that the jury's award was 'unconstitutionally excessive': 'Thomas would like to see the record companies forced to prove their actual damages due to downloading, a figure that Sony-BMG litigation head Jennifer Pariser testified that her company "had not stopped to calculate." In her motion, Thomas argues that the labels are contending that their actual damages are in the neighborhood of $20. Barring a new trial over the issue of damages, Thomas would like to see the reward knocked down three significant digits — from $222,000 to $151.20.'"
If you scaled up the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to the combined levels of horror WWI, WWII and the Holocaust, with nearly 100,000 dead or wounded - and most importantly on your own front door, with your family murdered in front of you or your daughters and wife raped and abused. And then to had the strength of character to turn it around within just 10 years, rebuild and forge a future together, then you might feel a little different about banning certain groups or themes.
I have never heard, nor do I expect to hear of a game called, for example, 'Slave Owner' or 'Trade Towers Bombing Run' (please don't tell me they exist). You are lucky that everyone else has the sensitivity not to make light of the horrors of your past - let alone criticize you for asking that to be respected at the very least in your own country.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
151.20 actually has more significant digits than 222,000.
.00 is part of the significant number and is not a product of rounding. The exact ammount of the fine as an integer is 220,000.00. Each digit is a significant digit. Last time I checked the award does contain more significant digits. The presence of a zero does not mean it was rounding measurement error. It is an integer award to the penny.
This is an integer measurement. The unprinted
The truth shall set you free!
The George Bush View:
No rights are irrevocable!
Ask me about repetitive DNA
ill pay $150 any time as damages. its more than what they deserve. but i ask, are they going to pay the damages in regard to the artists they ripped off for the last 60 years ?
Read radical news here
Which is fair?
Is it fair for the hundreds of thousands of people who work at Exxon to pay for the foolishness of that captain who ran aground up in Alaska? Is it fair for the thousands of hard working folks at GM or Ford to pay when some drunk drives a car into a tree? Is it fair when the hundreds of hard working rock and roll stars (hah) lose their retirement because some decides to "share" the music with hundreds of thousands of their closest friends?
This is a problem for the typical slashdot poster. Corporations are made of people too and juries routinely come down hard on corporations. That's celebrated here because the jury is hanging some big, faceless machine. But there the corporation is made up of people and all of those fines at Exxon came out of the retirement fund of thousands of people.
The fine is a bit tough. I wish it would be smaller. But as long as file sharing is so prevalent and as long as file "sharing" receives so much tacit support in fora like this one, high fines are the only way for the RIAA to fight back.