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Information Technology News Jammie Thomas file sharing verdict overturned
Information Technology News Jammie Thomas file sharing verdict overturned | Jammie Thomas file sharing verdict overturned |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Friday, 26 September 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 The point Davis was making is that it was not sufficient for the plaintiffs to show that Thomas had made the music files available, but that the jury should have considered whether anyone had actually downloaded them.Featured Whitepaper
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While the judge did not accept Thomas's claim that the damages awarded by the jury were excessive, he did call upon the US Congress to amend the Copyright Act to deal with the question of liability and damages in peer-to-peer cases. Large statutory damages may be appropriate where the defendant was infringing in search of commercial gain, but "the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs." Davis went on to observe that "In the case of individuals who infringe by using peer‐to‐peer networks, the potential gain from infringement is access to free music, not the possibility of hundreds of thousands - or even millions - of dollars in profits." He suggested that damages of 100 times the cost of the works would be sufficient deterrent to file sharing, and asserted that "the award of hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages [was] unprecedented and oppressive. Various parties filed amicus ('friend of the court') briefs prior to the ruling, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the United States Internet Industry Association, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation. At least one of those organisations was unhappy with the decision. Find out which on the next page. |
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