Copyright Law

Judge Davis refuses request for "reasonable damages" instruction in Capitol v Thomas-Rasset

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

In Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset, Judge Davis has refused to instruct the jury that their statutory damages award must bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages, and is instructing the jury that the defendant has violated the plaintiffs' distribution right.

October 13, 2010, Decision
Court's proposed jury instructions

[Ed. note In view of the jury instructions the judge is planning to give, it seems highly likely that the jury is going to feel compelled to once again come in with an award that is somewhere between $750 and $150,000 per work. I think the judge has erred once again. The jury will, apparently, not be able to consider the facts that (a) there was no evidence of a "distribution" within the meaning of the Copyright Act, and (b) plaintiffs' actual damages are in the neighborhood of 5 cents per work. And will not be instructed that its statutory damages award should be reasonable. How on earth can the judge have a problem with instructing the jury as to a long standing principle of copyright law, that statutory damages are required to bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages. Sad. Very sad. -R.B.]

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).