Appeals Court Knocks Out "Innocent Infringement"

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A 3-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has ruled that a Texas teenager was not entitled to invoke the innocent infringement defense in an RIAA file-sharing case where she had admittedly made unauthorized downloads of all of the 16 song files in question, and had not disputed that she had 'access' to the CD versions of the songs which bore copyright notices. The 11-page decision (PDF) handed down in Maverick Recording v. Harper seems to equate 'access' with the mere fact that CDs on sale in stores had copyright notices, and that she was free to go to such stores. In my opinion, however, that is not the type of access contemplated in the statute, as the reference to 'access' in the statute was intended to obviate the 'innocence' defense where the copy reproduced bore a copyright notice. The court also held that the 'making available' issue was irrelevant to the appeal, and that the constitutional argument as to excessiveness of damages had not been preserved for appeal."

Comments

Re:Not really the point

[BJ_Covert_Action]

if said teenager was downloading a Britney Spears song then it is of course wrong, and they should be harshly punished.

Agreed, anyone caught listening to that infernal racket should be burned at the stake. Downloading Britney Spears songs only propagates the stereotype that Britney Spears makes good music. This is a social injustice that should be fought not only in the trenches and streets, but on the very intrawebz we inhabit today.