Sunday, August 16, 2009

DoJ Defends $1.92 Million RIAA Verdict

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/08/15/171238/DoJ-Defends-192-Million-RIAA-Verdict

"The Justice Department has come out in favor of the $1.92 million verdict awarded to the RIAA in the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case. Their support came in the form of a legal brief filed on Friday, which notes, "Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many violators believe that they will go unnoticed." It also says, "The Copyright Act's statutory damages provision serves both to compensate and deter. Congress established a scheme to allow copyright holders to elect to receive statutory damages for copyright infringement instead of actual damages and profits because of the difficulty of calculating and proving actual damages."


The case referenced is one where someone downloaded 24 MP3s and has to pay $1.92 million or $80,000 per song. That seems perfectly fair.

In unrelated news, former RIAA lawyers were chosen for the top positions in the DOJ.

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