Washington
– The Obama Justice Dept. has submitted a filing defending a $675,000 damages
award for copyright infringement on a file-sharing network, the Copyrights and
Campaigns blog reported. Joel Tenenbaum was found guilty of sharing 30 songs on
Kazaa, and ordered to pay the record labels damages of $22,500 per song. He has
since asked the court to either reduce the damages or grant him a new trial,
arguing the damages amount is unconstitutional.
In its filing, the Justice
Dept. argues that Tenenbaum’s actions caused "great public harm."
"In
establishing the range [of copyright damage amounts: $750 to $150,000 per
infringement], Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of
users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many
violators believe they will go unnoticed," reads the DOJ filing.
"The
harms Congress sought to address, moreover, are not negated merely because an
infringer does not seek commercial gain. Accordingly, the statutory range
specified by Congress for a copyright infringement satisfies due process."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5001
(Copyrights and Campaigns blog)
http://snipurl.com/u504m
(DMW previous coverage)
The Justice department also supports the fines even when the record industry targeted the wrong person. What they never see is when the record industry sued someone who really was innocent. Then was forced to pay a penalty to the record industry. The innocent person also has to sign away constitutional rights in that they will not file a criminal complaint against the Record industry for having filed a fraudulent complaint with the court. Not everyone is guilty in these cases and the department of Justice continues to support the forcing of innocent person’s having to pay by use of forced litigation tactics. When the person is truly innocent, it puts a very different slant on things when Justice up holds the suing of innocent people. How is it anyone can back up a justice system that support a false court complaint against someone who was wrongfully targeted. It is the same as supporting forced extortion.