Judge Guts Whopping RIAA File Sharing Verdict: Via Threat Level.

A federal judge on Friday slashed by 90 percent the damages a jury awarded the recording industry in a lawsuit against a  university student caught file-sharing. The judge declared the original $675,000 award as “unconstitutionally excessive.”

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner reduced last year’s verdict to $67,500, or $2,250 for each of the 30 tracks defendant Joel Tenenbaum unlawfully downloaded and shared on Kazaa. The Obama administration argued in support of the original award.

“There is no question that this reduced award is still severe, even harsh,” the judge added. “It not only compensates the plaintiffs for the relatively minor harm that Tenenbaum caused them; it sends a strong message that those who exploit peer-to-peer networks to unlawfully download and distribute copyrighted works run the risk of incurring substantial damages awards” (.pdf).

The RIAA opposed Gertner’s move, arguing that judges do not have the discretion to tinker with the amount of statutory damages a jury awards in copyright infringement cases. [ Read more ... ]

Judge Cuts Damages in Sony v. Tenenbaum: Via EFF.org Updates.

Many were shocked last year when a Massachusetts jury awarded $675,000 in damages against Joel Tenenbaum, who had been found liable for copyright infringement after using peer-to-peer networks to download and share thirty of the plaintiffs' songs. In a lengthy ruling issued today, federal district court Judge Nancy Gertner held that the jury’s award — which equaled $22,500 per song — was unconstitutional and reduced it dramatically, to $67,500.

Echoing Chief Judge Michael Davis' comments in Capitol v. Thomas, Judge Gertner observed that the original award was "unprecedented and oppressive." The judge also indicated that the reduced award was still too high, noting it was "more than I might have awarded in my independent judgment. But the task of determining the appropriate damages award in this case fell to the jury, not the Court. I have merely reduced the award to the greatest amount that the Constitution will permit given the facts of this case." [ Read more ... ]

Court to Consider Breaking Up Mass BitTorrent Lawsuits: Via Threat Level.

If you’ve used BitTorrent to snag unauthorized copies of independent films you should be interested in the arguments unfolding in Wednesday in federal court in Washington, DC.

At issue is a mass-litigation campaign, in which the fledgling US Copyright Group is suing about 15,000 users whose IP addresses were detected harvesting films like Steam Experiment, Far Cry, Uncross the Stars, Gray Man and Call of the Wild 3D.

Several digital rights groups will argue Wednesday on behalf of the account holders behind the IP addresses that each defendant should be sued individually in courts near where the defendants reside. Currently, they’ve all been lumped together in handful of lawsuits filed in the nation’s capital in March.

If U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer agrees with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen, the Copyright Group could find its legal campaign almost impossible to continue on such a grand scale.

The issue is important if you live in California and have to answer to a lawsuit across the country. Copyright Act violations carry fines of up to $150,000. [ Read more ... ]

Supreme Court Gets RIAA Copyright Case: Via Threat Level.

A case testing the meaning of the so-called “innocent infringer’s” defense to the Copyright Act’s minimum $750-per-music-track fine has landed at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case the justices were asked to review this week concerns a federal appeals court’s February decision ordering a university student to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $27,750 ($750 a track) for file sharing 37 songs when she was a high school cheerleader. That decision reversed a Texas federal judge who had ordered defendant Whitney Harper to pay $7,400 ($200 per song).

The lower court, without a trial, had granted her the innocent infringer’s exemption to the Copyright Act’s minimum fine, because the teen claimed she didn’t know she was violating copyrights. She said she thought file sharing was akin to internet radio streaming. [ Read more ... ]

Copyright Lawsuits Plummet in Aftermath of RIAA Campaign: Via Threat Level.

New federal copyright infringement lawsuits plummeted to a six-year low in 2009, the year after the Recording Industry Association of America abandoned its litigation campaign against file sharers, court records show.

Copyright lawsuits numbered 2,192 in 2009, down almost a third from the previous year, and represented more than a 50 percent drop from 2005, when the recording industry’s legal machinery was in full gear.

[...]

The figures provide fresh anecdotal evidence that the nation’s copyright-infringement dockets were significantly weighed down by the recording industry during that time. And the numbers, released by the Administrative Office of the Courts, come as indie filmmakers are picking up on the aggressive legal strategy the RIAA has abandoned.

The RIAA, the record labels’ lobbying and litigation arm, announced the end of its 5-year-old lawsuit campaign in December 2008, after having targeted some 18,000 individuals, usually naming dozens or hundreds of defendants per suit.  [ Read more ... ]

LimeWire Crushed in RIAA Infringement Lawsuit: Via Threat Level.

LimeWire was found liable of copyright infringement Tuesday in a decision that threatens to financially devastate the New York company behind the file-sharing application.

In a 4-year-old case brought by The Recording Industry Association of America, U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood ruled that LimeWire’s users commit a “substantial amount of copyright infringement” (.pdf) and that the Lime Group, the company behind the application,  ”has not taken meaningful steps to mitigate infringement.”

The RIAA was seeking up to $150,000 per copyright violation, though the final damages in the lawsuit have not yet been determined. The lawsuit claimed at least 93 percent of LimeWire’s file sharing traffic was unauthorized copyright material.

Limewire claims “50 million unique monthly users.” Its website claims its “software is downloaded hundreds of thousands of times every day and boasts millions of active users at any given moment.”

It was the first case targeting a file-sharing software maker following the 2005 Grokster decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for lawsuits targeting companies that induced or encouraged file sharing piracy. [ Read more ... ]

Court OKs Unmasking Identities of Copyright Scofflaws: Via Threat Level.

A federal appeals court is blessing the legal process by which the recording industry and other content owners unmask the identities of alleged peer-to-peer copyright infringers.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is believed to be the first appellate court to sanction a process that has ultimately hauled tens of thousands of alleged P2P infringers into court, (.pdf) many at the request of the Recording Industry Association of America.

“They have upheld the RIAA’s legal strategy,” said Richard A. Altman, the New York attorney who brought the court challenge.

Thursday’s decision comes as Indie filmmakers are using the same process to acquire the identities of thousands of BitTorrent users accused of copyright infringement.

The legal action was brought by a State University of New York at Albany student accused of using Gnutella to download and make songs available on the internet. [ Read more ... ]

The Entertainment Industry's Dystopia of the Future: Via EFF.org Updates.

We're not easily shocked by entertainment industry overreaching; unfortunately, it's par for the course. But we were taken aback by the wish list the industry submitted in response to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator's request for comments on the forthcoming "Joint Strategic Plan" for intellectual property enforcement. The comments submitted by various organizations provide a kind of window into how these organizations view both intellectual property and the public interest. For example, EFF and other public interest groups have asked the IPEC to take a balanced approach to intellectual property enforcement, paying close attention to the actual harm caused, the potential unexpected consequences of government intervention, and compelling countervailing priorities.

The joint comment filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and others stands as a sharp contrast, mapping out a vision of the future where Big Media priorities are woven deep into the Internet, law enforcement, and educational institutions.

Consider the following, all taken from the entertainment industry's submission to the IPEC. [ Read more ... ]

Malware Threatens to Sue BitTorrent Downloaders: Via Wired: Threat Level.

A new malware scam is trying to dupe BitTorrent users into coughing up serious cash for illegally downloading copyrighted material.

The code displays a box with the message “Warning! Piracy detected!” and opens a web page purportedly run by a Swiss company “committed to promoting the cultural and economic benefits of copyright.”

The fake company, the ICCP Foundation, also claims to be backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and others. “It appears to scan the user’s hard drive for .torrent files and displays these as  ’evidence’ of an earlier infringement,” wrote TorrentFreak, which first disclosed the malware.

Victims are are warned of possible imprisonment and fines, and given the option of “settling” the “case” for a one-time payment of $400, by credit card. [ Read more ... ]

ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws: Via Threat Level.

The United States is nudging the international community to develop protocols to suspend the internet connections of customers caught downloading copyrighted works, according to a leaked draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The United States is leading the 2-year-old, once-secret negotiations over the so-called ACTA accord. The Jan. 18 draft, about 56 pages and labeled “confidential,”  just surfaced, and follows a string of earlier, less comprehensive leaks.

The leak shows that the treaty, if adopted under the U.S. language, would for the first time hold internet service providers responsible when customers download infringing material, unless those ISPs take action by “adopting and reasonably implementing a policy to address the unauthorized storage or transmission of materials protected by copyright or related rights.” [ Read more ... ]

Anti-RIAA Site Folds: Via Threat Level.

Provocative website p2pnet.net, the online voice to one of the world’s most blistering and perpetual attacks on the Recording Industry Association of America, is shuttering amid financial doldrums. It was 9 years old.

“I can’t claim p2pnet has been protecting the world, but I’ve done my best to unspin some of the vested interest corporate spin, and expose a few of the lies and corruption,” the site’s voice and founder Jon Newton said in his “last post” Wednesday.

The Vancouver Island, British Columbia huckster is looking for donations or even a partnership in hopes of reviving the site that has become infamous for its mocking portrayal of the RIAA, which consists of Vivendi Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music.

While Newton mocked the Motion Picture Association of America, the site is best remembered for referring to the RIAA as the “Big 4 Organised Music Cartel,” [ Read more ... ]

Lawyers Challenge Lowered Amount of ‘Shocking’ File Sharing Award: Via Threat Level.

Lawyers for a music file sharer said Monday they would challenge a judge’s order reducing from $1.92 million to $54,000 the amount their client, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, must pay the recording industry for copyright infringement of 24 songs.

The appeal concerns Friday’s head-spinning order by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis. The Minnesota federal judge dramatically lowered the amount a jury in June ordered Thomas-Rasset to pay — after being found liable in what at the time was the nation’s first Recording Industry Association of America file sharing case to reach trial. Most of the RIAA’s 30,000 lawsuits were settled out of court for a few thousand dollars during the record companies’ six-year litigation campaign, which is winding down.

Joe Sibley, Thomas-Rasset’s attorney, said in a telephone interview that even the reduced amount of damages is unconstitutionally excessive. It’s a penalty of 2,250 times an assumed $1 cost of a music download. [ Read more ... ]

"Three Strikes" and Verizon: Not Happening: Via Public Knowledge.

Yesterday’s CNET report that Verizon had secretly adopted a “three strikes” policy towards alleged copyright infringers had our office all atwitter last night - how could a charter member of our ad hoc copyright reform coalition be engaging in such radical activity? Well, it turns out they weren’t.

As their misquoted spokesperson explains here, what Verizon employs is a process for passing on warning notices to alleged infringers, but that process does not include automatic termination. My guess is that to the extent that she was talking about infringers having their internet access terminated, she was referring to people who had been adjudicated by a court to be infringing, and as such, they would be violating Verizon’s terms of service.

Passing on warning notices that do not involve deep packet inspection is a process for limiting infringement that PK wholeheartedly supports and which appears to be quite effective. [ Read more ... ]

Verizon Terminating Copyright Infringers’ Internet Access: Via Threat Level.

While it was not immediately clear whether other internet service providers were following suit, the move comes as the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are lobbying ISPs and Congress to support terminating internet access for repeat, online copyright offenders.

All the while, the United States has been privately lobbying the European Union to “encourage” so-called three strikes policies, according to leaked documents surrounding a proposed international intellectual property accord.

Verizon was not immediately prepared to comment in detail on the developments, first reported by CNET, or to detail how many of its more than 8 million broadband subscribers it has terminated — although CNET said the number was “small.” The RIAA declined comment.

“We reserve the right to do that,” Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson said in a telephone interview regarding the terminations. [ Read more ... ]

Court Reduces ‘Shocking’ File Sharing Award: Via Threat Level.

A federal judge on Friday reduced a $1.92 million file sharing verdict to $54,000 after concluding the award for infringing 24 songs was “shocking.”

A federal jury in June found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable in what at the time was the nation’s only Recording Industry Association of America file sharing case against an individual to go to trial. The Minnesota federal jury dinged her $1.92 million for infringing 24 songs. She asked the judge to set aside or reduce that $80,000 per song in damages.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis agreed on Friday, and said the RIAA may have a retrial if it does not accept his ruling.

“The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music,” Davis wrote. “Moreover, although plaintiffs were not required to prove their actual damages, statutory damages must bear some relation to actual damages.” [ Read more ... ]

Senator Demands IP Treaty Details: Via Threat Level.

That a U.S. senator must ask a federal agency to share information regarding a proposed and “classified” international anti-counterfeiting accord the government has already disclosed is alarming. Especially when the info has been given to Hollywood, the recording industry, software makers and even some digital-rights groups.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is demanding that U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk confirm leaks surrounding the unfinished Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, being negotiated largely between the European Union and United States. Among other things, Wyden wants to know if the deal creates international guidelines that mean consumers lose internet access if they are believed to be digital copyright scofflaws.

He also wants to know whether internet service providers could lose “safe harbor” protection for failing to police their customers’ digital content for copyright infringement violations. Such a move would heap copyright liability onto the ISP, and fundamentally alter U.S. copyright law.

What “legal incentives,” Wyden asked Kirk in a Wednesday letter, would “encourage Online Service Providers (OSPs) to cooperate with copyright owners to deter the unauthorized storage or transmission of copyrighted materials.”

The questions came weeks after leaked documents from the European Union suggested the United States was taking those positions on the accord’s draft internet section. [ Read more ... ]

Et Tu, U2? Bono, Net Surveillance and the Developing World: Via EFF.org Updates.

We feel compelled to add our comments about Bono's recent New York Times column, in which he appeared to express a strange hope that ISPs would start spying on their users in the name of protecting America's intellectual property. "We know," says Bono, "from America's noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China's ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it's perfectly possible to track content." He continues by hoping that "movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product."

But Bono's new-found embrace of tracking Internet activity is in direct conflict with his own positions (expressed in the same article) about global freedom and equity. [ Read more ... ]

EFF minilinks for 2009-16-12: Via EFF.org Updates.

• NYT Editorial: Twitter Tapping
  The Times' editorial board speaks out in support of EFF's lawsuit seeking government guidelines for the monitoring of social networking sites.
  
• District Court: Personal E-Mail From Work Still Privileged
  A federal prosecutor had a reasonable expectation of privacy when he sent personal email to his lawyer over government computers, the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled.
  [ Read more ... ]
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Judge Sides With RIAA in ‘Sham’ Litigation Class Action: Via Threat Level.

A judge has dealt a major blow to a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the Recording Industry Association of America’s nearly 6-year-old courthouse campaign against file sharers amounts to nothing more than “sham” litigation.

The judge ruled that the RIAA has the right to bring civil lawsuits and is protected under a legal doctrine allowing trade groups to protect the interests of their members. The RIAA, the judge added, had an “objective basis” to bring lawsuits against individuals (.pdf) connected to IP addresses over which file sharing is occurring.

“The court, therefore, concludes on this record that plaintiff has not established defendants filed a series of lawsuits based on a policy of initiating legal proceedings without regard to the merits,” U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown of Oregon wrote Thursday.

Brown, however, did not immediately dismiss the proposed class action that represents the estimated 30,000 individuals the RIAA has sued, although her ruling seems to suggest that a dismissal is coming. [ Read more ... ]

Verizon to forward RIAA warning letters (but that's all): Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

If you're a copyright owner who has gone to the trouble and expense of tracking down online copyright infringers, don't send warning letters to Verizon without striking a deal first; Verizon simply chucks them in the bin.

Do a deal with the "big V" and Verizon is willing to forward warning letters on to its subscribers, but that's it. No customer information is exchanged and no sanctions are implemented—and Verizon has been handling the issue this way for years.

Read Original Article:(Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.)

Setback for malicious prosecution lawsuit against RIAA: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Although the RIAA has decided to stop initiating new legal actions against music fans as part of its war on piracy, there are still a few cases in which the wheels of justice are rolling ahead slowly. One such case is Andersen v. Atlantic, where exonerated former RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen is suing the record labels for malicious prosecution, negligence, and conspiracy. That lawsuit hit a speed bump when a federal judge dismissed some of the claims in Andersen's lawsuit. [ Read more ... ]

Targeted Copyright Enforcement: Deterring Many Users with a Few Lawsuits: Via Freedom to Tinker.

One reason the record industry's strategy of suing online infringers ran into trouble is that there are too many infringers to sue. If the industry can only sue a tiny fraction of infringers, then any individual infringer will know that he is very unlikely to be sued, and deterrence will fail.

Or so it might seem -- until you read The Dynamics of Deterrence, a recent paper by Mark Kleiman and Beau Kilmer that explains how to deter a great many violators despite limited enforcement capacity.

Consider the following hypothetical. [ Read more ... ]

Judge Refuses to Punish Lawyer for Anti-RIAA Blogging: Via Threat Level.

An attorney defending against a music-piracy lawsuit didn’t cross ethical bounds by filing motions broadly attacking the recording industry and posting them on his blog, a magistrate judge has ruled, rejecting demands from the RIAA for monetary sanctions.

Attorney Ray Beckerman was “less than forthcoming at times” in defending a client against an RIAA lawsuit, but the music industry’s concerns were “largely overstated,” New York Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy wrote Friday (.pdf).

“Although defendant’s counsel took an unusually aggressive stance and, at times, veered into hyperbole and gratuitous attacks on the recording industry as a whole, I do not find clear evidence of bad faith on counsel’s part,” [ Read more ... ]

Feeling guilt over P2P use? Piracy Payback wants to help: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Feeling a sense of remorse, contrition, guilt, shame, and self-loathing over all that unauthorized peer-to-peer downloading you've been doing? Salve that stinging conscience by giving some cash back to artists! [ Read more ... ]

Ignoring RIAA lawsuits cheaper than going to trial: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum captured the nation's attention when they were defendants in the RIAA's first two trials against accused online infringers. But here's the mind-warping reality: both defendants would have been far better off monetarily if they had simply ignored the complaint altogether and failed to show up in court. [ Read more ... ]