The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: Attero Dominatus on January 30, 2008, 05:16:47 PM
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By Nate Anderson | Published: January 29, 2008 - 09:57PM CT
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.
Treat every person who buys a CD as a potential criminal. <sarcasm>That will boost CD sales </sarcasm> :whatever:
More: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080129-statutory-damages-not-high-enough.html
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Stupid idea. ::)
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I think the RIAA has done more to screw the music industry in recent years, then even the shitty songs by recycled so called "artists" have.
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I tend to break CD's on a somewhat frequent basis. So the first thing I do when I buy one is copy the music onto my PC so if I do break it, I can reburn it and still listen to it at work and such.
Companies wanna come after me for that, I'd love to see them try it.
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Great way to keep the millions of music fans going to the stores and buying your artist products.
Oh wait they aren't buying jack now2 because the RIAA has ripped us off and is now trying to make it so no one will be willing to buy even one copy of "Jan and Deans Greatest Hits" let alone The Beatles "Abby Road" or Fleetwood Macs "Rumors" or Rick Wakemans "White Rock".
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Well, since music pretty much sucks these days, this isn't much of an issue.