In Round 2, Jammie Thomas Jury Awards RIAA $1,920,000 793
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Well the price went up from $9250 per song file to $80,000 per song file, as the jury awarded the RIAA statutory damages of $1,920,000.00 for infringement of 24 MP3s, in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. In this trial, although the defendant had an expert witness of her own, she never called him to testify, and her attorneys never challenged the technical evidence offered by the RIAA's MediaSentry and Doug Jacobson. Also, neither the special verdict form nor the jury instructions spelled out what the elements of a 'distribution' are, or what needed to be established by the plaintiffs in order to recover statutory — as opposed to actual — damages. No doubt there will now have to be a third trial, and no doubt the unreasonableness of the verdict will lend support to those arguing that the RIAA's statutory damages theory is unconstitutional." Update: 06/19 01:39 GMT by T : Lots more detail at Ars Technica, too.
unreasonableness? (Score:5, Funny)
$1.92M for 24 songs is unreasonable? What makes you say that?
Re:Well . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What are the lawyers thinking? (Score:5, Funny)
haha.. never assign to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.
Run for the hills! (Score:2, Funny)
If we end up with a string of verdicts like this I have two things to say:
1. I, for one, welcome our new RIAA overlords
2. I think we finally have step 3!
1. Produce easily copied item no one wants to pay for
2. Let people get used to getting it for free
3. Sue your customers for millions of dollars
4. Profit!
$80,000 is awesome (Score:5, Funny)
So all I have to do is, twice a year write an awful song, then get someone to put it up on a torrent and that's worth $160,000 right? That's a freaking awesome alternate reality! I can live like a king for playing guitar badly a couple of times a year!
By that kind of accounting, I'm worth billions. Boat salesmen will knock. Bikini clad women will swoon. I can have any car I like!
Tell the truth now, you're just trying to outdo the British, aren't you? They only used to send their convicts to Australia for a dozen years for stealing a loaf of bread. You'd ruin people's whole lives over copying a song.
Re:Justifying piracy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:unreasonableness? (Score:1, Funny)
Well Done! (Score:5, Funny)
Well done, RIAA, and a hearty thank you to your minions at MediaSentry.
I now feel that I am REALLY getting my monies worth from my Internet connection. Just downloaded 1,000 songs in a collection "Best Rock Songs Ever".
Used Bittorrent, so I figure that, at 80,000 per song, I just copped 80 MILLION DOLLARS last month!That theft took just 5% of my transfer cap, so I *could* go for 1.6 BILLION if I really got cracking!
Out of time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Justifying piracy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:unreasonableness? (Score:5, Funny)
Quick! Call the IRS. We've just solved the budget crisis!
I would like to sell my music back to the RIAA (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well . . . (Score:4, Funny)
I don't really think it's for me to say. And I don't think your comment was trollish in the least. You were cautioning people against retaining a lawyer just based on the fact that they like him. And when I said "agreed", I meant it.
How do we know that you are not just agreeing with Rycross to trick people into thinking you are a good lawyer when in fact you are not? And which goblet has the iocane powder?
If 1000 SlashDotters ... (Score:3, Funny)
If 1000 SlashDotters download one song every 2 minutes, then they will download 262,800 songs over the course of one year. If the RIAA collects $80,000 per song, they will collect $21 Trillion Dollars. At 10% income tax, this will raise an extra $2 trillion for the U.S. budget, and wipe out the nations deficit.
As such, every /. reader should download as many songs as possible. Save the nation from deficit! Fix the housing crisis! Save the stock market! Be a national hero!
Re:Well . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Also sexy, but everything's sexy to me.
--
I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar
Your post and sig make a very scary duo.