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Tenise Barker Takes On RIAA Damages Theory
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Tenise Barker, the young social worker from the Bronx who took on the RIAA's 'making available' theory and won, has now launched a challenge to the constitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory. In her answer to the RIAA's amended complaint [PDF], she argues that recovering from 2,142 to 428,571 times the actual damages would be a violation of Due Process. She says that the Court could avoid having to find the statute unconstitutional by construing the RIAA's complaint as alleging a single copyright infringement — the use of an 'online media distribution system' — and limiting the total recovery to $750. In the alternative, she argues, if the Court feels it cannot avoid the question, it should simply limit the plaintiffs' damages to $3.50 per song file, since awarding more — against a single noncommercial user, for a single upload or download of an MP3 file for personal use — would be unconstitutional."
Regarding your sig,
Obama is likely campaigning in other countries because he realises something very important: The US is a superpower at the behest of the rest of the world, not in defiance of the rest of the world. If you want proof of this, just look at various central banks response to the US subprime mortgage crisis. Even though we caused the problems entirely on our own, they devalued their own currencies by introducing massive amounts of capital to the market.
Bush and the Republicans keep acting like the world is against the US. That couldn't be further from the truth. Most foreigners may have strong words for the US, but at the end of the day, it's the US economy which helps keep the world spinning, and everyone knows that.
The problem is, the Republicans ARE turning the world against us, and that's having major ramifications in the world. We're starting to have problems selling our debt, so we're stuck asking the Federal Reserve to print more currency. People aren't travelling to the US anymore, so the trade deficit increases. This decreases the currency influx into the states, forcing the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low to ensure there's adequate money supply, which further compounds the problem of massive inflation.
Basically, once the world starts to have more confidence in the US, they'll start buying our stocks again, they'll start buying our debt again, they'll start building trade relationships with us again, and we might start to see the incredible decline cease. (if you've got 0.7% GDP growth but 20% inflation over the same period, we're in a recession)
It's only sense then. Obama isn't just campaigning to win the campaign; he's campaigning to change America for the better. He's investing political capital he'll be ready to reap benefits with on day 1. The Republicans on the other hand....Say, doesn't John McCain have a black baby? Oh wait. No, that was last time he ran for president.
It's been a long time.