Judge slams, slashes "unconstitutional" $675,000 P2P award
Found on ArsTechnica on Friday, 09 July 2010
According to Gertner, they trampled the Constitution's "Due Process" clause. In a ruling today, the judge slashed the $675,000 award by a factor of 10, to $67,500.
If it sounds like a familiar result, it should. In Minnesota, Judge Michael Davis used a different legal approach called remittitur to lower Jammie Thomas-Rasset's liability from $1.9 million to $2,250 per song.
In addition to irritating the RIAA, the ruling can't be good news for the US Copyright Group, which has filed 14,000 similar lawsuits in 2010 alone, targeting those who swap independent films online.
Sharing doesn't do any harm and the industry should stop using it as an excuse for their failure to cope with today's world. The past is over and times change.