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Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA Again In Tenenbaum
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Despite having had some time to get their act together, Obama's Department of Justice has filed yet another brief defending the RIAA's outlandish statutory damages theory — that someone who downloaded an mp3 with a 99-cent retail value, causing a maximum possible damages of 35 cents, is liable for from $750 to $150,000 for each such file downloaded, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum. The 25- page brief (PDF) continues the DOJ's practice of (a) ignoring the case law which holds that the Supreme Court's due process jurisprudence is applicable to statutory damages, (b) ignoring the law review articles to like effect, (c) ignoring the actual holding of the 1919 case they rely upon, (d) ignoring the fact that the RIAA failed to prove 'distribution' as defined by the Copyright Act, and (e) ignoring the actual wording and reasoning of the Supreme Court in its leading Gore and Campbell decisions. Jon Newton of p2pnet.net attributes the Justice Department's 'oversights' to the 'eye-popping number of people [in its employ] who worked for, and/or are directly connected with, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music's RIAA.'"
"A Bill" is the problem here, why not break it up into smaller more manageable parts that people can understand where the money both comes from and goes to.
Maybe even some smaller regulation changes like the problems selling insurance across state lines and such. Would go a long way to help.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I'm not going to explain how badly the democratic party has messed up
You're assuming that their goal was to give us national health. I'm assuming that their goal was to look like they were trying to give us national health but were forced to compromise. From your point of view, they messed up. From mine, they are succeeding brilliantly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"