White House Copyright Czar
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Ominously, president Barack Obama’s shiny new White House is already starting to look like a corporate division, in some respects.
“For his vice president, Barack Obama chose Joe Biden (right), a senator with a long history of aiding the Recording Industry Association of America,” said CNET News recently.
“Then Obama picked the RIAA’s favorite lawyer, Tom Perrelli, for a top Justice Department post.
Then, as one of his first official actions as president, Obama, “selected the Business Software Alliance’s top antipiracy enforcer and general counsel, Neil MacBride, for a senior Justice Department post”.
MacBride was responsible for the BSA’s rat program which rewarded people for, “phoning in tips about suspected software piracy”.
Next up will be the White House Copyright Czar.
“Please urge President Obama not to appoint a representative of the content cartel,” asks Recording Industry vs The People‘s Ray Beckerman.
It would be like putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse, he says, adding:
“Please also make the White House is aware of Judge Davis’s remarks in Capitol v Thomas, calling for congressional reform to protect against outlandish verdicts against noncommercial users.”
Here’s a link to the White House’s contact form, and here’s what judge Davis had to say, in part »»»
The Court would be remiss if it did not take this opportunity to implore Congress to amend the Copyright Act to address liability and damages in peer to peer network cases such as the one currently before this Court. The Court begins its analysis by recognizing the unique nature of this case. The defendant is an individual, a consumer. She is not a business. She sought no profit from her acts. The myriad of copyright cases cited by Plaintiffs and the Government, in which courts upheld large statutory damages awards far above the minimum, have limited relevance in this case. All of the cited cases involve corporate or business defendants and seek to deter future illegal commercial conduct. The parties point to no case in which large statutory damages were applied to a party who did not infringe in search of commercial gain.
The statutory damages awarded against Thomas are not a deterrent against those who pirate music in order to profit. Thomas`s conduct was motivated by her desire to obtain the copyrighted music for her own use. The Court does not condone Thomas`s actions, but it would be a farce to say that a single mother`s acts of using Kazaa are the equivalent, for example, to the acts of global financial firms illegally infringing on copyrights in order to profit in the securities market. Cf. Lowry`s Reports, Inc. v. Legg Mason, Inc., 271 F. Supp. 2d 42 737, 741, 42 (D. Md. 2003) (describing defendants as a global financial services firm and a corporation that brokers securities).
While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs` claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has farâreaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs. Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000 more than five hundred times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than four thousand times the cost of three CDs. While the Copyright Act was intended to permit statutory damages that are larger than the simple cost of the infringed works in order to make infringing a far less attractive alternative than legitimately purchasing the songs, surely damages that are more than one hundred times the cost of the works would serve as a sufficient deterrent.
Thomas not only gained no profits from her alleged illegal activities, she sought no profits. Part of the justification for large statutory damages awards in copyright cases is to deter actors by ensuring that the possible penalty for infringing substantially outweighs the potential gain from infringing. In the case of commercial actors, the potential gain in revenues is enormous and enticing to potential infringers. In the case of individuals who infringe by using peer-to-peer networks, the potential gain from infringement is access to free music, not the possibility of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in profits. This fact means that statutory damages awards of hundreds of thousands of dollars is certainly far greater than necessary to accomplish Congress`s goal of deterrence.
Unfortunately, by using Kazaa, Thomas acted like countless other Internet users. Her alleged acts were illegal, but common. Her status as a consumer who was not seeking to harm her competitors or make a profit does not excuse her behavior. But it does make the award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages unprecedented and oppressive.
You know what to do
CNET News – Obama picks BSA’s antipiracy enforcer for high-level post, January 23, 2009
Copyright Czar – Bush signs RIAA, MPAA Bill, October 14, 2008
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January 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
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