I think its easier to about a hypothetical situation but it gets harder when its your own financial future on the line. I can see that it would be a smart decision to pay $3,000 rather than take it to court and risk astronomical fines. Copyright law allows for damages between US$750 and $150,000 for each song. See this page for details.
The burden of proof is less than beyond a reasonable doubt. With Judges and the general public not aware of the technical aspects of installing software and IP addresses it wouldn;t be suprising that a good lawyer for the RIAA could convince them that it was you who had the files in question on your computer. Saying you wouldn't even need a lawyer to win is being naive of the system of law.
By settling you are taking the easy option of ending the uncertainty. If you don't settle you risk a chance of financial ruin. An individual would need to hire a lawyer to take on a huge corporation's team of lawyers. The more I look at it the more that the decision to settle early for a heavily reduced amount makes perfect sense.
"The RIAA also filed suits against Daniel Peng of Princeton University and Joseph Nievelt of Michigan Technological University. According to The Detroit Free Press, Nievelt holds over 652,000 MP3s on his own computer, a number that yields a total fine of $97.8 billion, or 120 times last year's CD sales, if the RIAA is granted the amount it requested."
Are you going to take the risk when the RIAA sends you a letter?
I bought a feamle friends' playstation over the weekend because it didn't have enough "cartoon games". She said she wanted an X-Box because she really wanted to play their range of games including Mario! I started to explain the concept of different systems with different games but it will be easier to go to the games store to explain because it is laid out by console, I think it will be a Gamecube she decides on in the end.
This situation might not be typical but not knowing everything about the consoles is understandable when its not a hobby that you spend hours reading about each week. That's why she sold the console to me, even though I already have one, because I will know the right person to sell it to.
Even though she has her brand names mixed she still knows what she wants - fun games. I am willing to spend half an hour adjusting to the controls of a new game if it pays off in the end with a great plot and the right amount of difficulty. But I have been gaming for 20 years. Kids' games are the ideal game for someone who wants to pick up the controller and have be playing within 5 minutes.
There is a complete list of the religious codes from the 1996 census available at the ABS (I cannot find the codes for the 2001 census). They have an alphabetical listing, here is a brief example of some of the listed religions:
Code Description
6999 Divine Light Mission
2911 Divine Science
0003 Do not attend church
0003 Do not profess
7010 Don't follow any
0003 Don't know
0003 Doubtful
6011 Dreamtime
6132 Druidism
6132 Druids
6071 Druse
6071 Druze
0002 Dualist
2252 Dutch Australian Reformed
2252 Dutch Christian Church
2252 Dutch Church
There is no listing for Jedi for the 1996 census but I guess it has been added for last year's census because they have counted the number who gave it as a response.
Judging by some of the responses that get assigned a coding number they do not only count recognised religions e.g. Doubtful or Zilch (which means nothing).
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The burden of proof is less than beyond a reasonable doubt. With Judges and the general public not aware of the technical aspects of installing software and IP addresses it wouldn;t be suprising that a good lawyer for the RIAA could convince them that it was you who had the files in question on your computer. Saying you wouldn't even need a lawyer to win is being naive of the system of law.
By settling you are taking the easy option of ending the uncertainty. If you don't settle you risk a chance of financial ruin. An individual would need to hire a lawyer to take on a huge corporation's team of lawyers. The more I look at it the more that the decision to settle early for a heavily reduced amount makes perfect sense.
This page shows how ridiculous this can be.
Are you going to take the risk when the RIAA sends you a letter?
I bought a feamle friends' playstation over the weekend because it didn't have enough "cartoon games". She said she wanted an X-Box because she really wanted to play their range of games including Mario! I started to explain the concept of different systems with different games but it will be easier to go to the games store to explain because it is laid out by console, I think it will be a Gamecube she decides on in the end.
This situation might not be typical but not knowing everything about the consoles is understandable when its not a hobby that you spend hours reading about each week. That's why she sold the console to me, even though I already have one, because I will know the right person to sell it to.
Even though she has her brand names mixed she still knows what she wants - fun games. I am willing to spend half an hour adjusting to the controls of a new game if it pays off in the end with a great plot and the right amount of difficulty. But I have been gaming for 20 years. Kids' games are the ideal game for someone who wants to pick up the controller and have be playing within 5 minutes.
Judging by some of the responses that get assigned a coding number they do not only count recognised religions e.g. Doubtful or Zilch (which means nothing).