Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead
But then the penalties need to better reflect the uncertainty.
Even in the Thomas case, a subsequent judge drastically lowered the judgment from over $2 million to $54,000. And now the RIAA have offered Thomas a $25,000 settlement if they can drop that judge's decision (which she has denied).
So even though they have Thomas dead to rights, there is still so much wrangling going on that there is a lot of uncertainty.
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Not only should the damages better reflect that uncertainty, they should actually reflect the real damages suffered by the plaintiff. Damages are determined by statute, for the most part, in these cases. It would be nice to see the issue of actual damage suffered by the recording industry hashed out in court.
There are some compelling studies on how much illegal file sharing is really damaging the recording industry. It's hard to fathom how a $150,000 penalty can be attached per download when songs can be purchased for a buck or too. And that assumes every download equals a lost sale.