Did the court have to prove exactly where those 30 tracks came from? If I look at my collection, I’ve got tracks ripped from my own CDs. Tracks bought from online services. Tracks given to me by friends. Tracks obtained via BT. Tracks obtained via P2P. And for at least some of it I have no idea if it’s under restrictive copyright or not. And I routinely tidy, rename and strip ID3 comments and URL tags so there’s nothing obvious in the MP3s to differentiate one source from another. Even I can’t remember or work out where it all came from. And as there are more and more legal and quasi-legal download sites out there spread all over the world, the onus of proof has to be on the copyright owner that the individual track has been obtained outside their rules.

And the charge was downloading tracks that she hadn’t bought, not uploading or making available all 1000 tracks via Kazaa? So are we saying that if you only make available music on P2P networks that you’ve actually bought, that’s ok? Surely not.

There’s something screwy here. And not just the screwy damages claim of $750 for each track.

Sony/BMG was found guilty? Without a trial before a jury of their peers? They haven’t even come close settling any of the DRM-related lawsuits yet! I appreciate the effort of the people running p2pnet to spread peer-to-peer scene related news, but honestly, some of the news items on this site are as spin-filled and reprehensible as the propaganda that the RIAA puts out. Don’t get me wrong, I think what the RIAA is doing is awful, and I have not given them a dime in financial support since they started their little crusade, but the folks at p2pnet aren’t helping our side any by stooping to their level…

Sony/BMG was found guilty? Without a trial before a jury of their peers? They haven’t even come close settling any of the DRM-related lawsuits yet! I appreciate the effort of the people running p2pnet to spread peer-to-peer scene related news, but honestly, some of the news items on this site are as spin-filled and reprehensible as the propaganda that the RIAA puts out. Don’t get me wrong, I think what the RIAA is doing is awful, and I have not given them a dime in financial support since they started their little crusade, but the folks at p2pnet aren’t helping our side any by stooping to their level…

“However, the appeals panel said Gonzalez never deleted songs off her computer she decided not to buy, and judges said she could have been liable for more than 1,000 songs found on her computer,”

In our case the music publisher (ACEMLA) stole (illegally claimed to be owners) over 500 songs my family owned and licensed to radio stations and record companies (for records that sold over 5 million copies), during a period of 7 years. During that time we could not license the songs because potential licensee feared that we did not own the songs. Damages awarded for the 500+ stolen songs: $0.00. What did the judge say about the theft in his decision: Absolutely nothing, as if it never hapenned.

Another music publisher (Peermusic a.k.a. Peer International) issued several ilegal licenses for songs which they had no right. The rights belonged to my family. The evidence shows that Peermusic earned many thousands (at least $39,000) of dollars from these licenses. Damages awarded to us: $5.00. Peermusic continues to infringe our rights to this day because the judge forgot to tell Peemusic (I guess): Stop the infringement. Peer has a full time lawyer in their legal department. After the judge’s judgement Peermusic alleged, incredibly, they won the case and send a $1,00,000 lawyer fee request, in what it seems an act of persuation (it looked like blackmail to me) so we would not appeal the low judgement and other flagrant errors of the judge.

The courts have gone berserk. The guilty who profit greatly from their large scale (and real) theft and infringement and who know by heart the copyright law go unpunished while people who have no knowledge of the copyright law and make no profit from their casual copying are brutally punished.

Poor Cecilia Gonzalez has been thrown to the dogs by the American judges, like we were. Who is the next victim of the berserk legal system?

I repeat, the American courts (judges) have gone berserk. The only comparable time in Americal judicial history was when the courts said that slavery was all right. Perhaps the fact tha no compaint against any judge has prospered since the 1930’s when judicial councils were set up at each federal appeal courts - over 50 years ago and perhaps 25,000 or more complaints, has something to do with it. Last I heard (there is a congressional report of less than 5 years about this) complaints were being routinely disposed of without any investigation at all. Unbelievable!!!. More broken the system could not be.

This article, Thoughts on the Law Addressing Bad Federal Judges, while praising judges (all lawyers must always do this, it is mandatory) gives some light into the matter of rotten apple judges:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040813.html

Our story of infringemet, far broader than depicted here, is on our web page.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com