RIAA vs Jammie Thomas Declared A Mistrial, P2P Users Breathe Sigh Of Relief
Despite over 30,000 cases being settled out of court for a few thousand dollars a pop, the RIAA has never been successful at trial in upholding its five-year copyright infringement litigation campaign. The first and only federal jury verdict against a P2P file sharer has recently been made in a trial where defendant Jammie Thomas was expected to be handed a fine of around £150,000 for infringing copyright by distributing 24 music tracks she made available on the Kazaa network. However, despite U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ruling last year that the recording industry did not have to prove anybody downloaded the songs, a last-minute u-turn saw Davis decide that he may have committed a ‘manifest error of the law’ and ordered a retrial. The RIAA isn’t happy, and says that requiring proof of actual transfers would cripple efforts to enforce copyright owners’ rights online. Digital rights groups point to the fact that the damages awarded in these cases are completely disproportionate to the damages suffered. According to the Copyright Act, fines of up to $150,000 can be made per music track, and Thomas’ $222,000 fine in this case was around 500 times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and over 4,000 times the cost of three CDs. It also points out that the jury is still out on whether RIAA investigators break the law when gathering evidence, since they’re not licensed to do so. Is the RIAA taking the p*ss with these exorbitant figures? Or are they legitimately trying to protect the interests of the owners of the copyright? - Paul Lester [Wired] RIAA copyright P2P
 |
 |
Original post by nafiz