Woman convicted of music piracy appeals damages as unconstitutionally excessive

[thewayne]

"The minimum penalty under the Copyright Act equals a ratio of over 750 times the actual injury, assuming the value of a single music track is iTunes' 99-cent rate. Rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts say financial punishments exceeding a 9-to-1 ratio are unconstitutional.

Toder speculated that each digital download that is pirated costs the industry only 70 cents -- meaning Thomas' conduct was punished at a ratio of more than 1,000 times actual damages.

"Whether the court recognizes actual damages of zero dollars, $20 or whatever figure plaintiffs suggest ... the ratio of actual damages to the award is not only astronomical, it is offensive to our Constitution and offensive generally," Toder wrote."


Interesting point. The RIAA says, naturally, that their assertion is groundless.

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/10/copyright

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/16/0034235

Comments

[silveradept]

I like this line of thinking - if you must award damages, doing so in an amount the defendant can be reasonably expected to pay should be part of the award. Where is someone going to get more than $200,000 dollars without selling all their assets and going into bankruptcy? (And all over 24 tracks. Two CDs worth, or so.)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

You can't use bankruptcy to discharge legal judgments IIRC, so that would only screw up the rest of your finances, you'd still be stuck with that debt overhead.

[silveradept]

Ah, so it's not an albatross, it's a millstone and cement shoes.