Submission + - Excess copyright damages may get to Sup Ct (blogspot.com)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In a copyright infringement case involving karaokes, a number of important copyright issues may get thrashed out by the U.S. Supreme Court, including several of the most troubling these days, (1) whether teaching is a fair use, and (2) whether the content companies' demands for large statutory damages awards, where they can't prove any damages, are unconstitutional. A petition for Supreme Court review has been filed in Zomba v. Panorama, from a decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which left standing an award of damages 44 times the actual damages sustained. The brief (pdf) made reference, at page 32, to the RIAA, MPAA, and NMPA's "flooding the courts with statutory damages cases", and to the $222,000 award, based on $23.76 worth of song files, obtained by the RIAA in Capitol v. Thomas."