December 5th, 2007
Justice comes out against Jammie Thomas
After Jammie Thomas left court with a $222,000 judgment against her for allegedly illegally downloading music, she vowed to appeal the decision. The basis of the appeal was that the statutory fines the jury levied against her are unconstitutional, considering that the actual value of each download is only about 70 cents.
Now the Justice Department has weighed in on the appeal, in a lengthy amicus brief that argues strongly that statutory fines are constitutional and that there is a great need to punish Thomas harshly.
“Given the findings of copyright infringement in this case, the damages awarded under the Copyright Act’s statutory damages provision did not violate the Due Process Clause” of the Constitution, the brief noted. The damages were not “so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense….”
Thomas essentially claims that statutory fines equal punitive damages that are “so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense or obviously unreasonable.”
The Justice Dept. - which is charged with defending the nation’s laws in court - argued that they are not oppressive, but in fact necessary to protect copyright holders against infringement. If RIAA could only get $28 for the songs that Thomas downloaded, it wouldn’t be feasible to sue her and there would be widespread infringement.
Although defendant claims that plaintiffs’ damages are 70 cents per infringing copy, it is unknown how many other users–”potentially millions”–committed subsequent acts of infringement with the illegal copies of works that the defendant infringed. Accordingly, it is impossible to calculate the damages caused by a single infringement, particularly for infringement that occurs over the Internet. Furthermore, plaintiffs contend that their witnesses “testified to the substantial harm caused by the massive distribution of their copyrighted sound recordings over the Internet, including lost revenues, layoffs, and a diminished capability to identify and promote new talent…”
Most recently, Congress has crafted a statute that serves as a deterrent to those infringing parties who think they will go undetected in committing this great public wrong, as well as providing compensation to copyright owners who have to invest resources into protecting property that is often unquantifiable. Accordingly, given the findings of copyright infringement in this case, the damages awarded under the Copyright Act’s statutory damages provision did not violate the due process clause…
