‘A Remedy in Need of Reform’
p2pnet news view P2P | RIAA:- Judges “can and should develop a more principled approach to statutory damage awards to be more consistent with Congress’ intent in establishing a tripartite and just statutory damage regime, with principles of due process, and with international norms,” say Pamela Samuelson and Tara Wheatland of the University of California law school.
Cited by Ray Beckerman in Recording Industy vs The People, “U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work,” say Samuelson and Wheatland in their Statutory damages in copyright law: a remedy in need of reform.
Last year an American jury said Jamie Thomas-Rasset owed the corporate music industry almost two million dollars for allegedly sharing 24 songs online.
And Boston student Joel Tenenbaum and Harvard law professor Charles Nesson recently filed a motion for a new trial claiming a jury award of $675,000 award for 30 songs is unconstitutional.
Now, in their abstract, Samuelson and Wheatland continue >>>
This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be made, other than to say that the award should be in amount the court “considers just,” and that the upper end of the spectrum, from $30,000 to $150,000 per infringed work, is reserved for awards against “willful” infringers.
Courts have largely failed to develop a jurisprudence to guide decision-making about compensatory statutory damage awards in ordinary infringement cases or about strong deterrent or punitive damage awards in willful infringement cases. As a result, awards of statutory damages are frequently arbitrary, inconsistent, unprincipled, and sometimes grossly excessive.
This Article argues that such awards are not only inconsistent with Congressional intent in establishing the statutory damage regime, but also with principles of due process articulated in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on punitive damage awards.
Drawing upon some cases in which statutory damage awards have been consistent with Congressional intent and with the due process jurisprudence, this Article articulates principles upon which a sound jurisprudence for copyright statutory damage awards could be built. Nevertheless, legislative reform of the U.S. statutory damage rules may be desirable.
Innocent men, women and children
Lest we forget, this is about far more than the dry letter of the law.
Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA has become largely irrelevant as the Big 4’s US extortion unit. Its activities as an enforcer have been largely halted while Hollywood and the labels try to impose their Three Strikes ACTA scheme on governments.
But before they were sidelined, “For the RIAA crews, leaving thousands of American families in fear is just a job, and one they’re paid very handsomely indeed to perform,” said p2pnet, going on >>>
They go home at night, play with their children, pat the dog, and rest easy.
For their victims, though, it’s pain, nonstop, tears, sleepless nights, and for some, even thoughts of suicide.
Jammie, and Tanya Andersen, and Patti Santangelo, and Rae-Jay Schwartz and Marie Lindor are only five of the people brutalised by RIAA lawyers in what are called courts of law.
But every single one of the 40,000 people who have received RIAA subpoenas has sat back in shock, wondering how they can possibly take on a hugely wealthy Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music with their immense legal, financial and political resources?
The answer is: they can’t, and the people who run, and who work for, the RIAA such as it’s bosses, Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman, and Cara Duckworth and Jonathan Lamy, know it as they accuse their victims of stealing, when nothing’s been stolen, of being criminals, when no crime has been committed, of having caused misery to record industry workers, when the people behind the ‘trade’ association are wholly to blame.
Jammie is just one of the completely innocent, and very ordinary, men, women and children across America whose lives have been made almost unbearable by threats of law suits and fines they’d never be able to pay.
However, they’re not alone.
With every passing day, more and more people open Net accounts and log on to become part of the huge, ever-growing, online communities who by-pass the traditional media, acting as their own sources of news and information.
“Once upon a time, Big Music had everything its own way,” we added.
“But not any more.”
Jon Newton – p2pnet
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Recording Industy vs The People - Samuelson,Wheatland “Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform” 51 Wm & Mary L Rev 439, January 11, 2010
Jamie Thomas-Rasset – Jammie Thomas-Rasset: file sharing thief, June 10, 2000
sharing 24 songs online – Jamie Thomas-Rasset’s $1.92 million playlist, June 19, 2000
30 songs – Joel Tenenbaum files for new trial, January 4, 2010
Three Strikes ACTA scheme – Unlock ACTA secrets, legislators demand, January 9, 2010
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January 13th, 2010 at 11:58 am
“Judges ‘can and should develop a more principled approach to statutory damage awards”
Statutory damages are just that. STATUTORY. There is little, if any, discretion given to judges. Hence, the term, STATUTORY.