Journal Dr_Art's Journal: Jammie Thomas looses lawyer due to lack of funds 2
The "Free Jammie" website recently announced that Jammie Thomas is no longer represented by her lawyer due to lack of funds.
Whether or not you think Jammie Thomas is really guilty of copyright infringement, her case is noteworthy because it is the first known case from the 30,000 or so the recording industry has filed against P2P users to actually make it to jury trial and receive a judgement. Her case is currently under appeal, and several controversial legal issues arose from the case. Most notably, at the last moment the judge changed his instructions to the jury to indicate that "making available" is copyright infringement, even though copyright law (Title 17 USC 106(3)) clearly states that an actual "transfer" must have taken place. Also, the appeal claims that the $9,250 per song judgment is unconstitutional and unjust since it is over 9,000 times the "actual" damages (see this article).
It's sad that the appeal on a case with such important legal issues may fail due to lack of funds.
Whether or not you think Jammie Thomas is really guilty of copyright infringement, her case is noteworthy because it is the first known case from the 30,000 or so the recording industry has filed against P2P users to actually make it to jury trial and receive a judgement. Her case is currently under appeal, and several controversial legal issues arose from the case. Most notably, at the last moment the judge changed his instructions to the jury to indicate that "making available" is copyright infringement, even though copyright law (Title 17 USC 106(3)) clearly states that an actual "transfer" must have taken place. Also, the appeal claims that the $9,250 per song judgment is unconstitutional and unjust since it is over 9,000 times the "actual" damages (see this article).
It's sad that the appeal on a case with such important legal issues may fail due to lack of funds.
Over 9000 times actual damages? (Score:2)
So she admits there *ARE* damages then...
Thus, admitting that she was in the wrong.
And how do you put a price tag on those sort of damages anyways? Most of the damage done by copyright infringement is rarely in the form of actual liquid damages, but usually in the much more difficult to pin down notion of the exclusive rights that the publisher was supposed to have over the creation of distributable copies of the works.
Re: (Score:1)
The idea is that even if she was guilty (without admitting guilt) of having downloaded songs, then the retail value of each song is ~$1 (see for example iTunes). The wholesale value on each song would be something less than $1. The $9,250 is over 9,000 times the wholesale value. Simple math.
Now lets look at distribution. First, there's no evidence that anything was distributed. At best, if you beli