June 22nd, 2009

Will File-Sharing Case Spawn a Copyright Reform Movement?

By David Kravets, Wired News

Copyright expert Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted in a recent blog post that under a Supreme Court precedent, the justices have concluded that punitive damages, generally, should be no higher than nine times the actual damages. The case is not squarely on-point with Thomas-Rasset’s, where the award was based on the statute, and not an arbitrary number intended purely to punish a defendant. But assuming each download in the Thomas-Rasset case is valued at $1, her judgment is at a ratio of a stunning 800,000-to-1.

Related Issues: File Sharing

Related Cases: Capitol v. Thomas

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