We now have a copy of the jury instructions in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset.
Jury Instructions
[Ed. note. The instructions do not define or explain what a distribution is. I.e. they do not instruct the jury that plaintiffs have to prove a dissemination of copies to the public, or that there must have been a sale or other transfer of ownership, or a lease, rental, or lending. In view of how we got to this point, I'm a bit surprised at that. -R.B.]
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Legal issues arising from the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people, and other important internet law issues. Provided by Ray Beckerman, P.C.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Jury instructions in Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset now available online
5 comments:
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The Special Verdict Form will not be available via ECF. I have a hard copy but am unable to make it into an electronic version at the present time.
ReplyDeleteThird time's the charm!
ReplyDelete2L student
Not necessarily. We don't know what led up to it. The defendant's counsel might have agreed to it. There might have been some negotiation. We just don't know.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that jumped out at me was the repeated assertion that "...without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right" See for example instructions 16, 18 and 19. As a juror I would be lead to believe that no one could ever copy or distribute any copyrighted work without infringing on it absent a license from the copyright holder.
ReplyDeleteIf I go to a store to buy a copyrighted item for a child, should I demand to see the cashier's license to distribute, and also require that I get one so I can distribute the item to my child?
Just a biased observer
So why would the whiz kid defense lawyer go along with this? Did he? If so, how can he now object to these instructions on appeal?
ReplyDeleteJudge Davis had it figured out last year. What happened?
Ray - maybe you should have been her lawyer.