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RIAA Litigation May Be Unconstitutional
dtjohnson writes "A Harvard law school professor has submitted arguments on behalf of
Joel Tenenbaum in RIAA v. Tenenbaum in which Professor Charles
Nesson claims that the underlying law that the RIAA uses is actually a
criminal, rather than civil, statute and is therefore
unconstitutional. According to this article, 'Nesson
charges that the federal law is essentially a criminal statute
in that it seeks to punish violators with minimum statutory penalties
far in excess of actual damages. The market value of a song is 99 cents
on iTunes; of seven songs, $6.93. Yet the statutory damages are a
minimum of $750 per song, escalating to as much as $150,000 per song
for infringement "committed willfully."' If the law is a criminal
statute, Neeson then claims that it violates the 5th
and 8th
amendments and is therefore unconstitutional. Litigation will
take a while but this may be the end for RIAA litigation, at least
until they can persuade
Congress to pass a new law."
Well, it really depends on where you are. Didn't you watch the Olympics in Beijing? The sky there was gre... ... OH, you were being sarcastic. Heh. Clever.
A car analogy? Really? Well, I guess it works.
With fines like that I-294 can be toll free as well the rest of the IL toll way system.
A first post with a car analogy, AND by someone who actually RTFA. I think we have a kind of record here.
by ArchAngel (247594)
There, fixed that for you.
Fry 'em! Littering trash! Fire up old sparkey & destroy their computers.
Oh, sorry, I was channeling Orrin Hatch for a moment.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
It's true, nothing that anybody might ever consider "stupid" could possibly be a law. The very idea!
Idjit.
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
No, his name WAS Robert Paulson. He changed it when RIAA bounty hunters kept trying to shoot him in the head.
Only on slashdot
The Constitution wasn't raped. It was *asking* to be fucked. I mean, it was just sitting there with its Articles and Amendments spread out for all to see. How is a president supposed to avoid putting his special pen there?
Similar to the upcoming US election results
wow...individual music collections soon to be more valuable than a majority share in a major bank :-)
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Bah, a car analogy is the kind of thing Hitler would have used if he wanted the terrorist to win!
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I'm so embarrassed. My face is all #FF0000.....
You make me #00FF00 with envy that I can't come up with something that witty.
It just keeps me feelin' the #0000FF(s)
At first, I was too afraid to post this. Someone told me I was #FFFF00.
#FF8800 you glad I posted anyway?