Legal Research

More Copyright Pushback

A couple of weeks ago I began reading and thinking about how much effort corporations are putting into the “command and control” of what we get to see and do on the Web.  I decided to start following copyright cases.  At first, I only cared about how copyright would affect Google/YouTube.  But lately I’ve started to take an interest in file sharing cases.  Which leads me to the following news items from today:

Capitol v. Thomas: Judge Orders New Trial, Implores Congress to Lower Statutory Penalties for P2P

Last October, Jammie Thomas was held liable for infringing the copyrights on 24 songs she made available via Kazaa.  Damages totaled more than $200,000.  The judge in the case, Michael J. Davis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, decided that he had erred in one of his instructions to the jury — where he told them that they could find Thomas guilty of “unauthorized distribution” even if the plaintiff couldn’t prove that anyone actually downloaded the songs — heard additional arguments from both parties, and ultimately called for a retrial.  He ruled, “… the plain meaning of the term ‘distribution’ does not including making available and, instead, requires actual dissemination.”  Additional coverage from Wired.

DoJ to Senate: don’t make us be Big Content’s copyright cops

This past Tuesday, Keith B. Nelson, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the DoJ and Lily Fu Claffee, General Counsel of the Commerce Department sent a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which they expressed strong opposition to Senate Bill 3325, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008.  According to the letter, the bill “not only authorizes the Attorney General to pursue civil remedies for copyright infringement, but to secure ‘restitution’ damages and remit them to the private owners of infringed copyrights.”  This “could result in Department of Justice prosecutors serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders regardless of their resources.  In effect, taxpayer-supported Department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry.”  Track the bill’s progress via THOMAS.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).