The Recording Industry Association of America may be running into resistance in Oregon, but further up in the judicial system, the organization’s pursuit of small-time file sharers is being viewed favorably. In a brief filed Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice sided with the RIAA in a file-sharing case where $220,000 in damages had been racked up against one person.
Specifically, the case was that of Jammie Thomas, a single mother in Minnesota who had the full weight of the law fall on her for sharing 24 copyrighted songs on her computer. After her first trial resulted in statutory damages of $9,250 per song – $220,000 in total – being assigned, she appealed the case and hoped to show that such damages were unconstitutionally excessive.
But the U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t see it that way. “Statutory damages compensate those wronged in areas in which actual damages are hard to quantify in addition to providing deterrence to those inclined to commit a public wrong,” the department wrote in its brief. So while record labels may only make about 70 cents per song, the statutory damages for sharing that song can be significantly higher without being labeled “excessive.”
While the RIAA has managed to collect thousands from file sharers through out-of-court settlements, the case of Capitol v. Thomas was the first anti-piracy case the RIAA has actually taken to court and won, and is likely to set precedent in the legal realm.
