Posted on 01/30/2008 10:54:17 AM PST by Snickering Hound
Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. Sound fair? Proportional? Necessary? Not really, but that doesn't mean it won't become law.
The change to statutory damages is contained in the PRO-IP Act that is currently up for consideration in Congress. We've reported on the bill before, noting that Google's top copyright lawyer (and the man who wrote a seven-volume treatise on the subject of copyright law), William Patry, called the bill the most "outrageously gluttonous IP bill ever introduced in the US."
The industries pushing it (music, especially) have an "unslakable lust for more and more rights, longer terms of protection, draconian criminal provisions, and civil damages that bear no resemblance to the damages suffered," he said.
Public Knowledge head Gigi Sohn testified before Congress last year that statutory damages are already "disproportionate penalties for infringement," pointing that it hardly seems fair to bill someone like Jammie Thomas more than $9,000 per song when each track costs a buck. Even accounting for a punitive penalty, that seems absurdly high.
Both Patry and Sohn attended a Copyright Office roundtable on statutory damages a few days ago, and Public Knowledge's staff attorney Sherwin Siy has posted a fascinating writeup of the closed-door session.
The meeting was a small affair, with only 30 or so stakeholders in attendance, and it quickly became clear that even content owners had different takes on the situation. The Magazine Publishers Association, for instance, argued for maintaining the current law. If the PRO-IP Act passes, anyone found guilty of copying a magazine could be liable for hundreds of separate acts of infringement (at the judge's discretion), but magazine accused of copyright violations would face similarly huge penalties.
Patry wasn't pleased with the PRO-IP Act, nor was Public Knowledge. On the other side, the argument seemed to be that people could take advantage of the law to copy "greatest hits" albums or other compilations but be liable for less damages than if they had ripped the songs from ten individual albums. As Siy points out, no one in the room could offer any actual evidence of such "crafty defendants," and the change in law would likely do little to change the behavior of file-swappers.
Given the huge amounts already available to copyright holders (who can always collect actual damages if the statutory damages truly aren't large enough to cover their costs), an increase in statutory damages seems only useful when pursuing true "pirates" and large-scale infringers. Unfortunately, the PRO-IP Act would would make the damages an option in small-scale file-swapping cases, the kinds of cases that the European Court of Justice doesn't seem real worried about. When it comes to casual, non-commercial users, current awards are high enough already.
Sponsor: John Conyers Co-sponsors: Rep Berman, Howard L. [D][CA-28] - 12/5/2007 Rep Chabot, Steve [R][OH-1] - 12/5/2007 Rep Cohen, Steve [D][TN-9] - 12/5/2007 Rep Feeney, Tom [R][FL-24] - 12/5/2007 Rep Goodlatte, Bob [R][VA-6] - 12/5/2007 Rep Issa, Darrell E. [R][CA-49] - 12/5/2007 Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [D][TX-18] - 12/5/2007 Rep Keller, Ric [R][FL-8] - 12/5/2007 Rep Schiff, Adam B. [D][CA-29] - 12/5/2007 Rep Smith, Lamar [R][TX-21] - 12/5/2007 Rep Wexler, Robert [D][FL-19] - 12/6/2007
Seems like a pretty good example of cruel and unusual punishment to me.
Copy ping!
I’ve got close to 700 Cds, store bought, ripped to my hard drive. When a friend needs a song he likes, I just email it to him. If he wants the whole disc I do it one song/email at a time. I never use open p2p sharing sites or software.
Most mp3s are 5mbs and only take a few seconds on broadband DSL extreme.
Argh, Bob Goodlatte, my old hometown rep, is signed on to that monstrosity. Rick “Mr. Peepers” Boucher (D, VA-9) needs to come across the aisle from the Dem side and slap some sense into him.
If nothing else, it’s proof that the RIAA and their minions work both sides of the aisle equally. Conyers and Sheila “Mars” Jackson-Lee on one side, Goodlatte and Darrell Issa on the other.
}:-)4
Copy ping!
I’ve got close to 700 Cds, store bought, ripped to my hard drive.
I wish that line were focused on. That's the issue behind the issue. If I am copying something I already own, as opposed to freely distributing it on the public Internet, how can the "damages" be set so high?
Was there 1.5 million $ of damages?
Is this why Edwards dropped out of the race?
Does any of this apply to China?
bump for later reading
This whole thing might explain part of why cassette tapes aren’t being produced any more. Are they? What are people supposed to listen to in their cassette players? A cassette player is certainly smaller than a portable CD player. You can’t pop a CD player into your pocket.
Disproportionate laws breed contempt for all laws. But no one ever said Congressmen were smart or logical. A pox on all their houses.
Copy ping!
Copy ping!
Crap... We're up to $4.5 million so far...
I just acquired a used Bose Lifestyle system that plays and stores copies of CDs automatically. I wonder if Bose will be an accessory to copyright infringement.
Aren’t there bigger fish to fry like the makers of blank cd’s? Of course they’re probably owned by corporations like sony. They’re going to sue folks for using the products they sell. What a country!
Did they have Dr. Evil come up with a one million dollar figure, and then run in by the lawyers who said “if you want one million after a 33% lawyer fee, you’ll need $1.5 million”?
Most of what I have acquired from friends music collections is/was not something I was willing to buy in the first place, and if I’m forced to delete it, there is no real loss to me.
RIAA...good luck with your enforcement. I’ve already stopped buying your products, maybe I’ll stop using them too.
Was it full of the previous owners music? I never new the Lifestyle system did that. Pretty cool. I use Bose 301s in the front and the 101s in the rear. Infinity center and JBL sub. Rocks nicely.
Well, then there are at lest two ISPs who have a record of your transaction right there...be careful.
Not surprised to see Lamar Smith’s name on this.
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