- Cryin by Aerosmith
- Somebody by Bryan Adams
- Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard
- Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny’s Child
- Here We Are by Gloria Estefan
- Coming Out of the Dark by Gloria Estefan
- Rhythm Is Gonna Get You by Gloria Estefan
- Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls
- Basket Case by Green Day
- Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses
- November Rain by Guns N' Roses
- Let's Wait Awhile by Janet Jackson
- Faithfully by Journey
- Don't Stop Believing by Journey
- One Step Closer by Linkin Park
- Bathwater by No Doubt
- Hella Good by No Doubt
- Different People by No Doubt
- One Honest Heart by Reba McEntire
- Now and Forever by Richard Marx
- Possession by Sarah McLachlan
- Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan
- Run Baby Run by Sheryl Crow
- Save the Best for Last by Vanessa Williams
Saturday, June 20, 2009
A playlist for the ages
For those of you who are curious after reading my last post, here are the 24 songs for which Ms. Thomas-Rasset was ordered to pay 1.92 million dollars. This is, without a doubt, the most expensive play list ever created. Yet, you can purchase all of these songs from iTunes for around $23.76. In other words, the judgment was a little more than 80,000 times the actual damages (the lost revenue of the record labels).
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Disclaimers: a) I think the "industry's" position on file-sharing is short-sighted and protectionist to a major fault; b) I think the order to pay $1.92MM completely out of touch with the "crime."
ReplyDeleteThat being noted, the question of damages in this case was related to her making the files available to other people for uploading. That's how the RIAA could make a case for more than $1/song (or so) damages.
It is still unfortunate that the amount was so large and, in some ways, unfortunate that the record industry won this case at all. I read an article a while back (haven't been able to find it since) about the turn of the 20th century when carriage makers (of the horse-drawn sort) were petitioning government to introduce a tariff on automobiles because the automobile would ruin the carriage industry. This, to me, is a very similar situation. The record/film industry simply isn't willing to acknowledge that the world has changed and, with it, their business model needs to change or they'll eventually be out of business.
Thank you for your post.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether Ms. Thomas-Rasset made the files available to others or whether others actually downloaded any of the songs, this case dealt with statutory damages. Under the statutory damages section of the Copyright Act a plaintiff may elect between actual damages and statutory damages. Statutory damages for willful infringement are up to $150,000 per work infringed.
Therefore, once the jury found that she willfully infringed, Ms. Thomas-Rasset could have been liable for 24 x $150,000 = 3.6 Million Dollars. She was ordered to pay 81% of the maximum award allowed under the statutory damages statute. What do you think of such a law?
I enjoyed reading your comments. Thanks!