RIAA shouldn't be able to levy whopping file-swapping fines, paper says [ip]

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: May 4, 2005 1:44:36 AM EDT
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: [Politech] RIAA shouldn't be able to levy whopping file- 
swapping fines, paper says [ip]



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RIAA Tops 10,000 File-Sharers Sued; Article on File Sharing
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:20:55 -0500
From: Cam Barker <cambarker@mail.utexas.edu>
To: <declan@well.com>

I wanted to let you know about an article on excessive penalties for
file-sharing, written by me and posted at
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract_id=660601

The paper argues that the file sharers sued by the RIAA have a
constitutional right to pay much smaller penalties than the millions of
dollars they can be liable for under copyright law's minimum damages  
of $750
per song.  With the RIAA breaking the 10,000-person barrier this week  
in its
lawsuits against file sharers (see http://sharenomore.blogspot.com/),  
and
with no indication of slowing down, it seems timely to look at how  
much the
recording industry is recovering in these lawsuits.  Such a right to pay
smaller penalties could reduce the settlement pressure on file  
swappers and
could change the economics of the RIAA's mass litigation.

If this is something you'd like to post to Politech, that would be  
great.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,
Cam Barker


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