“Thomas is at risk for a judgment of more than $1.2 million,” says the RIAA, looking for damages set under federal law, of $750 to $30,000 for each alleged copyright violation.”

1. The maximum damages under federal law, per infringement is $150,000, not $30,000. The $150,000 applies when the infringement is intentional. So, if the $30,000 is a ridiculous figure, the $150,000 is far more ridiculous. It is so ridiculous, the $150,000 figure, that RIAA lawyers avoid mentioning it, so as not to expose the law to further scorn. No matter what, though, the law is ridiculous and should be scorned, along with the legislators that passed it without reading or understanding it.

2. From above, we can see that the maximimum damages is undereported by a factor if five, so as to avoid ridicule of the lawand the legal system. That being so, the figure of “more than $1.2 million” is more proper “more than $1.2 million” times 5, or $6 million.

3. The average American probably buys less than 5 CDs per year, or 15 in a three year period (older damages are prescribed and do not count). Assuming a profit of 5 dollars per CD to a record company a person that decides to copy CDs in lieu of buying them will have caused a $45 loss (this is the realistic 3 year damage, give or take a few dollars) to the various record companies that whould have benefited from the purchase of the 15 or so CD.

4. The “more than $1.2 million” is then 25,000 times the realistic damage of $45. But the more proper “more than $6 million is 125,000 times the actual damages of $45.

5. This takes us to the question, why are the possible damages for file sharing so draconian? Its quite simple. When the law was passed, the legislators were thininking only of commercial piracy. That is illegal copying by thief book publishers and thief record companies.

6. Here is a possible scenario under the current law. A 12 year old kid who has no money to buy a single CD may illegally and almost instantly copy a 4GB DVD or memory stick with 20,000 mp3 songs worth a (minimum) damage claim of $30 million dollars (20,00 songs x $750 damage x 2 ( the minimum damage of $750 is multiplied by two if the infringement copying was intentional, and it always is). The $30 million damages would then be an infinite number of times over the realistic damages as the 12 year old kid would not have purchased any CD in any event.

BTW, it is rummored that CDs and DVS, with thousands of mp3 song files are in cisculation and being copied over and over again. Just ask a music collector.

No wonder the music industry is destroying the customer base and the credibility of legislators and the judicial system. You may call this SELF DESTRUCTION THROUGH LAWYERS.