Friday, January 16, 2009

Practice tip: USA v. Dove exposes RIAA's faulty damages thinking

In defense of its outlandish damages demands, the RIAA has worked on the assumption that each download for which it hasn't been paid is a lost sale.

One of the fallacies in this argument has been exposed by the district court decision in USA v. Dove, denying a motion for restitution.

Any practitioner litigating the constitutionality of the RIAA's damages theories should go over USA v. Dove, and the authorities it discusses, with a fine toothed comb.

Previous practice tips




Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, my dredded obsession with clarity about what something means :-(

The judge seriously wrote: "Two victims, RIAA and Lionsgate[..]"

Now wait a minute, last I heard is that RIAA is a bunch of ...
No wait not that! Lets try again:

Last I heard is that RIAA is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality.

So how can they claim that they -who are just a bunch of lawyers and politician greasers- are an actual victim?

Aren't the copyrightholders -the labels- the "victims" if at all?

And when RIAA claims that they are the victim in a case of copyrightinfringement, does that not mean that RIAA

(and with it its lawyers like Carlos L. and all the other guys/gals that have written declarations/memoranda in their capacity as "being with the RIAA" or being not any more in case of "Mad" J. Oppenheim)

indeed is a party in all those other cases that are running at the moment?

IANAL, but I would say if they claim they are a victim, then they are clearly a party too and should be the ones that are named as defendants in those counterclaim cases for example like Tenenbaum VS Evil4 too!

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