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DoJ Sides With RIAA On Damages
Alberto G writes "As Jammie Thomas appeals the $222,000 copyright infringement verdict against her, the Department of Justice has weighed in on a central facet of her appeal: whether the $9,250-per-song damages were unconstitutionally excessive and violated the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. The DoJ says that there's nothing wrong with the figure the jury arrived at: '[G]iven the findings of copyright infringement in this case, the damages awarded under the Copyright Act's statutory damages provision did not violate the Due Process Clause; they were not "so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense or obviously unreasonable."' The DoJ also appears to buy into the RIAA's argument that making a file available on a P2P network constitutes copyright infringement. 'It's also impossible for the true damages to be calculated, according to the brief, because it's unknown how many other users accessed the files in the KaZaA share in question and committed further acts of copyright infringement.'"
Maybe it wasn't that good an idea to appeal. It was pretty obvious to me that it would end like this. It just strenghtened the RIAA. However, not appealing could be interpreted as an acknowledgment from JT and the lawyers that the RIAA was right as well... This whole RIAA thing is very unfair in general, and the fact that the government not only allows it but even encourages makes it still more miserable.
The copyright owner has the exclusive right - the constitutional right - to profit from his own creation.
The deek does not have a license to distribute.
The geek puts the work in a P2P shared files folder. The geek allows it to be indexed.
It is downloaded [surprise! surprise!] by B and C and D. Who in turn upload it [in whole or in part] to E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and L. Who in turn....
The geek who pretends that this is not an unconstrained, unlimited, re-distribution is only kidding himself. This is precisely the kind of abuse that ends in the award of statutory damages.
The geek might want to consider the alternate reality where downloads can be traced to their primary and secondary sources. The alternate reality in which he can be sued for the wholesale value or retail list price of 50,000 downloads of The Transformers.
"I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison. ... My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged."
-- George W. Bush
If we take that as a guideline for punishment, approved by the DOJ, for a serious crime,
then I think that the damage to Jammie Thomas' reputation would be penalty enough for a
finding of copyright infringement of 24 songs.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.