This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 02 Jun 2009, by Jonathan Bailey.
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President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court appears to back the theory — a false one at that — that large money damages deter copyright infringement.
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I don’t see anything in the Top Rank decision which justifies the conclusion you have drawn. The Top Rank decision is a “wilfulness” decision which appears to have awarded between 2 and 3 times the actual damages as statutory damages. The RIAA seeks from 2,200 to 450,000 times the actual damages. It is well settled law that the statutory damages have to bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages, and in keeping with economic reality. And it is well settled law that excessive disproportion to the actual damages is unconstitutional, as a violation of the due process clause. There is no reason in the world to think that Judge Sotomayor would consider imposing statutory damages of $750 to $150,000 as against plaintiff’s 35-cent loss.
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