Nate Anderson @ ars technica writes:
Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. Sound fair? Proportional? Necessary? Not really, but that doesn't mean it won't become law.
The change to statutory damages is contained in the PRO-IP Act that is currently up for consideration in Congress. We've reported on the bill before, noting that Google's top copyright lawyer (and the man who wrote a seven-volume treatise on the subject of copyright law), William Patry, called the bill the most "outrageously gluttonous IP bill ever introduced in the US."
The industries pushing it (music, especially) have an "unslakable lust for more and more rights, longer terms of protection, draconian criminal provisions, and civil damages that bear no resemblance to the damages suffered," he said.
If they really want a deterrent, they should just go all the way and ask for capital punishment...
Posted by: Paul | January 31, 2008 at 05:16 PM
Paul, you have a future in corporate politics.
Posted by: Kenzo (lastever.org / kenzodb.com) | January 31, 2008 at 05:19 PM
Hmmmm. . . law that will make the majority of Americans criminals. HUGE criminals.
Let's see, I'm assuming there's no back-dating of the crime, so a cd that I made before the law took place would be out of contention, but then how do they know WHEN I made the cd?
Posted by: illlich | January 31, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Look, cocaine doesn't pay for itself, you know.
Posted by: Listener bkd | February 01, 2008 at 09:30 AM
Makes sense that this would become law, considering how many Americans are criminals by virtue of what they do in the privacy of their own homes, might as well lump as many of us under the criminal umbrella as possible. Makes future social planning easier.
Posted by: Nicholas | February 04, 2008 at 09:33 AM