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In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury awarded the RIAA statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the special verdict form nor the jury instructions spelled out what the elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual — damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update: 06/19 01:39 GMT by T : Lots more detail at Ars Technica, too.
You are a MORON, a corporate boot-licking MORON.
She violated no one's "constitutionally gauranteed rights".
She violated a right granted by statute that is TOLERATED by the Constitution.
It's a considerable difference.
This bit of confusion perhaps is what leads to these assinine verdicts.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Didn't you also repeatedly say that the RIAA has effectively no chance of winning this time around in the last article on this?
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Is it just me, but isn't that the shortest trial in history?? Didn't it just start this past Monday??? How could ANY trial, short of a "kangaroo court", end so soon... Oh wait... perhaps that's what this was... Where were all the expert witnesses, and hotshot lawyer that was taking this probono??
I'm sure gonna be waiting to hear NYCL's take on this abortion......
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
It wasn't until Beethoven that the idea of making money off of copies of musical works even really took off.
[citation needed]
Seriously, it seems to be a very popular meme on /. that copyright is somehow a very recent invention, and that in some mythical past the only way people made money from music and other performance arts was by performing live. In reality, copyright is almost as old as the industry that prompted its invention, namely, printing and publishing. Also, the advent of digital media, which has made it possible to create lossless copies ad infinitum and at negligible cost, makes copyright more important, not less, despite what /. naysayers may feel about the publishing industry's "outdated business model".
*dons asbestos underwear*