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Originally Posted by drjones
The recording industry. It wasnt about downloading, it was about sharing. They awarded the RIAA something like almost 10k per song shared.
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It wasn't 10k per song shared... the stats were roughly 1700 violations by the defendant. That's about $130 per violation. Kind of like a speeding ticket per violation.
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They did have more evidence against this girl, than in a typical file sharer case. Specifically because of her Kazaa username. I don't think the girl was in the right or should be let off the hook, but the amount awarded is ridiculously absurd. I dont know how anyone can call it fair or "just". Its disgusting.
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Court decisions are made as punishments to those involved as well as deterrents to those considering the crime. If they were reasonable, people would weigh the punishment against the crime and many would choose that they could "afford" to do the crime. If the judgement is lofty, the deterrent is greater.
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Not to mention, almost all piracy statistics used in this case, and others are completely made up or built on false premises (such as assuming everyone who downloads a file, would have bought the cd, so every download translates as a lost sale). They literally get to make this shit up and put it forth as evidence, w/ no challenge.
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How can you say it's a false premise and use your logic to determine that the users were acceptable, but they never would have been purchasers? That's fine.. but if they really wanted the song, they should have recorded it off the radio. That they have a right to do. If you are a user of a song/video file/software program, etc... you are down the road of purchasing much more than someone who has no interest. Logic reasons that you would either purchase, or you had illegal intentions with your use. At that point it doesn't matter if you intended to purchase or not, it only matters that you are using. Defacto reasoning indicates you are now a purchaser that has just not transferred the funds for your use.
Even if not every download was a lost sale, a percentage of them are. You also have the detrimental effect to the marketing of the work. Why buy it when you can get it for free? Legal judgements are based on actual damages and punitive damages. They both work to compensate the offended party for loses.