RIAA's Tenenbaum Verdict Cut From $675k To $67.5k

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court has reduced the jury's award from $675,000, or $22,500 per infringed work, to $67,500, or $2,250 per infringed work, on due process grounds, holding that the jury's award was unconstitutionally excessive. In a 64-page decision (PDF), District Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that the Gore, Campbell, and Williams line of cases was applicable to determining the constitutionality of statutory damages awards, that statutory damages must bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages, and that the usual statutory damages award in even more egregious commercial cases is from 2 to 6 times the actual damages. However, after concluding that the actual damages in this case were ~ $1 per infringed work, she entered a judgment for 2,250 times that amount. Go figure." That $2,250 per infringed work figure should look familiar from Jammie Thomas-Rassett's reduced damages judgment — $54,000 for 24 songs.

Comments

Amateur Lawyers

[fm6]

However, after concluding that the actual damages in this case were ~ $1 per infringed work, she entered a judgment for 2,250 times that amount. Go figure.

If you can't figure out the judge's logic, maybe you should ask for your law school tuition back. What, you never went to law school? Funny how law is the one profession everybody thinks they know, even without training. Remind me not to ask your for medical advice either. And no, you can't design my house.

The decision seems to say that $2,250 is 3 times the "statutory minimum" of $750. And no, I don't know what statute she refers to — IANAL either.

Re:What difference does it make?

[nedlohs]

And poor child molesters spend years in prison, which also incurs a cutting back on luxuries.

Don't steal the fucking music in the first place seems the simple solution.