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Supreme Court May Tune In To Music Download Case
droopus writes "The US Supreme Court is weighing into the first RIAA file-sharing case to reach its docket, requesting that the music labels' litigation arm respond to a case testing the so-called 'innocent infringer' defense to copyright infringement. The case pending before the justices concerns a federal appeals court's February decision ordering a university student to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $27,750 — $750 a track — for file-sharing 37 songs when she was a high school cheerleader. The appeals court decision reversed a Texas federal judge who, after concluding the youngster was an innocent infringer, ordered defendant Whitney Harper to pay $7,400 — or $200 per song. That's an amount well below the standard $750 fine required under the Copyright act. Harper is among the estimated 20,000 individuals the RIAA has sued for file-sharing music. The RIAA has decried Harper as 'vexatious,' because of her relentless legal jockeying."
How much blacker can the pot get while impugning the kettle's color?
The answer is none. None more black.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Messing with a pretty white cheerleader with Republican parents, in Texas? They got *way* too cocky there. Even Satan's powers have their limits.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Didn't know the MPAA was a part of a music downloading legal case.
How does her having been a cheerleader have any impact on this case? Why even mention it?
It makes the 'I didn't know it was illegal' defense she is using more plausible.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
To the city, typically. But cities have a legitimate interest in parking control.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Haven't they figured out the whole "shave your head and pretend it's a macho thing" strategy yet? I saw "The Expendables", and the cast looked like a rogaine test control group. you'd think RIAA lawyers would have learned the same trick.
Burn the money. Then it increases the value of the dollar and helps everyone
Federal Reserve Notes are created so the Federal Reserve can pay for Treasury Notes the federal government forces on it. Burning or otherwise destroying cash just means there is less in circulation to be taxed to buy back the T-Notes. And since work had to be done somewhere along the line to earn the cash, destroying it when its in the private sector erases the wealth created by doing work and that hurts everyone.
Punitive damages are still supposed to be relative to the crime.
Yeah, but as I understand it, it had to do with the content. Rumor has it that included in the 37 tracks in question were:
Money - Pink Floyd
Diamonds and Pearls - Prince
Rich Girl - Hall and Oates
Moneytalks - AC/DC
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems - Notorious B.I.G.
For the Love of Money - The O'Jays
Greenback Dollar - The Kingston Trio
Money, Money, Money - ABBA
Material Girl - Madonna
She Works Hard for the Money - Donna Summer
How to be a Millionaire - ABC
Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
You Never Give Me Your Money - The Beatles
And a few different tracks by Johnny Cash
Then she's already been punished enough.