Comments on: Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional

By: The Power Geeks #58 - ThePowerGeeks.com

The Power Geeks #58 - ThePowerGeeks.com — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:06:06 +0000

[...] Judge Rules File Sharing Award Unconstitutional (UDG) [...]

By: Global Geek News Podcast #73

Global Geek News Podcast #73 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:16:11 +0000

[...] Judge slams RIAA; $675k fine ruled unconstitutional [...]

By: CDXX

CDXX — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:42:13 +0000

If I were him, I would pay them. In monthly installments of one dollar. And right before I sent it, I would “run out” of toilet paper…

By: Coffee - Why is my son so scared of everything? - Grinders

Coffee - Why is my son so scared of everything? - Grinders — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:12:48 +0000

[...] Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional | TorrentFreak [...]

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:04:50 +0000

You know what’s funny… After all these years of having to pay top dollar for software, music and movies; we’ve downloaded thousands of things and gotten away with it. If they DO end up putting a stop to all piracy (which will happen in a million years), the amount of damage we’ve done so far is just awesomeness. They’ve lost so much money and it’s so funny. I’ll download software and music I’ll never use or listen too, just to show maximum disrespect. Support the artist’s you say? What, so they can pay off their 4 story mansion? Please…

By: IamOKAW

IamOKAW — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:53:53 +0000

“Even if he could pay it, none of the money – be it $675,000, or $67,500 – would find its way into the pockets of the artists whose songs were involved. The RIAA told TorrentFreak that the damages will be used to fund new anti-piracy campaigns instead.”

That is priceless. All those BS guilt-trip adds about how piracy takes food off the tables of hard-working people in the entertainment industry. So why aren’t these judgement going to the poor, starving entertainers?

By: Brudda

Brudda — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:00:34 +0000

This is great news! Why?
Because it keeps the evil-corporate image of the RIAA in people’s minds. Also, it helps to educate and enlighten the older members of our society that file sharing exists and it’s relatively easy to do. “You mean I can download Apocalypse Now, or the Rolling Stones, or my favorite episode of Kojak for free? No way!” (yes way!)
Hopefully, it will bring some converts into the fold…

By: newmeta.com

newmeta.com — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:53:38 +0000

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional | TorrentFreak…

…

By: wew

wew — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:42:11 +0000

#78 what punishment do you crave – hand-cuffs, bondage, whips? Fag?

By: Ninja

Ninja — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:13:23 +0000

“The RIAA told TorrentFreak that the damages will be used to fund new anti-piracy campaigns instead.”

That pretty much ruin any argument RIAA throws at the lawsuits lol.

One of MAFIAA’s weapons is misinformation and fake data. Unfortunately, a jury is composed by regular Joes that don’t have much of a clue of what is happening. A well paid lawyer can brainwash them into obedient puppets in most cases regarding complex issues such as tech related and even the petrol case that demanded more attention to the guy than to any lawyer blabbing.

Oh well, good setback for MAFIAA. Hope both guys can carry on with their lives. And keep sharing =)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:30:43 +0000

@68

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Democracy simply doesn’t work”.

Yes it work once all the parasites has been eliminated.

By: RIAAAABOSSS

RIAAAABOSSS — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:26:40 +0000

FUCK THE DIRT RIA

SCUMS ALWAYS FIND EACHOTHER>>>
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100604/1229329692.shtml

By: Stinker

Stinker — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:24:46 +0000

OMG you dumb americans have to sue eachother for everything. Why don’t you just blow the fucking RIAA hq up with one of your nuclear warhead.

RIAA & BSA 2 criminal scum companies which must be stopped!

By: dopey

dopey — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:17:46 +0000

are they goin after people that are downloading movies and tv shows?

By: Antony Hopkins

Antony Hopkins — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:35:28 +0000

Who cares :) Joel will not give a penny to these scumbags of the RIAA.

Don’t buy CDs or DVDs. Don’t support scumbags. Supporting scumbags makes you a scumbag.

By: abolishcopyrightnow

abolishcopyrightnow — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:13:02 +0000

“I just downloaded Pendulums new album, so by the reduced sentence, i would only have to pay $37500 for the album…”

This is an example showing how unjust the reduced damage award is because civil damage awards should be for actual damages.

In reality the plaintiff cannot prove any actual damages and does not deserve any compensation.

What is wrong are the large punitive statutory damages in copyright law that are driven by tyranny and the infinite greed of the plaintiff.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:47:59 +0000

“I just downloaded Pendulums new album, so by the reduced sentence, i would only have to pay $37500 for the album…”

That has got to be the most idiotic reasoning. Its like saying that if you stole some money, your only punishment should be to pay back the exact amount you stole. The completely flies in the face of the notion of punishment.

By: Banzai Bri

Banzai Bri — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:44:10 +0000

Hurt the artists?? Whatever, obviously it doesnt hurt Trent Reznor or Radiohead, since they put their albums free online for everyone. And as soon as my band gets a record deal feel free to download and share as much as you want.

By: abolishcopyrightnow

abolishcopyrightnow — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:31:58 +0000

Civil cases are about making the defendant pay the plaintiff for actual damages and not these large punitive damages. The plaintiff cannot prove any actual damages. The judge states there was “relatively minor harm”.

In the end the judicial system is totally embarrassed by these unjust tyrannical copyright laws.

I hope the judge’s reputation is destroyed for the tyrannical damage award.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:09:01 +0000

We are not the criminals, the Riaa are they are basically extorting innocent people.If I was him I would go straight out of the country and go to Europe

By: === popurls.com === popular today

=== popurls.com === popular today — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:00:07 +0000

=== popurls.com === popular today…

yeah! this story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…

By: kevin

kevin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:59:14 +0000

posted this story to pikk – Fair or Foul? Judge reduces piracy damages to $67,000 – is it fair now? [POLL] – http://www.pikk.com/49538

By: Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:58:51 +0000

[...] Read more, click this link now! [...]

By: name

name — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:54:53 +0000

It’s moving in the right direction, but even the reduced amount is absurd. The damages should be the price to buy those songs on cd or itunes.

By: Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:43:45 +0000

[...] Via TorrentFreak. [...]

By: entertainment industry fails

entertainment industry fails — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:38:31 +0000

Honestly, I barley even pirate anymore… I started pirating because i was sick of paying ridiculous amounts for stuff I ended up hating. Just because I didn’t wanna get stuck with a movie/cd/game that I watched/listened to played for like 15 minutes and decided I hated it. Paying $60 for a game and playing it for 15 minutes SUCKS.

However, it has now literally reached the point where I don’t even bother stealing this garbage anymore. As far as mainstream music/movies/games, whats the point. Its all just trash.

By: Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional | Systema

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional | Systema — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:53:34 +0000

[...] Joel Tenenbaum was somewhat relieved upon hearing the verdict. In a telephone interview with the Boston Globe he said: “Obviously, it’s better news than it could have been. But it’s basically equally unpayable to me.” [...]

By: ffd

ffd — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:19:08 +0000

#65
But TF can tolerate neo-nazi-style and retardedmind’s spam. That’s not fair!

By: BIOS

BIOS — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:09:17 +0000

If any of this money went to the artists, I would actually be fine with it. While even the reduced amount is still completely unpayable, it would have at least been for the right cause. This BS where the people who didn’t create the content can take legal action against the people who steal it is getting completely out of hand (if not already out of hand).

What would it take to absolutely remove the RIAA from Media as a whole? I know all the shitty music of today is pumped out by the RIAA, but with the advent (well, more like continued use) of bit torrent and p2p in general, Artists can get all of their music out there and just set up a fkin paypal for donations. Even if the artist just has a website, I would be more inclined to download the lossless or even 320 or their latest album for a good $5.

Everyone is always complaining and not doing anything about these types of issues. I am glad to see that the ISPs are taking a stand though :)

By: Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional - 6460

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional - 6460 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:21:33 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Umm

Umm — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:20:25 +0000

$67.50 is a more reasonable settlement

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:00:46 +0000

Kent Brockman

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Democracy simply doesn’t work”.

By: Karolis

Karolis — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:53:13 +0000

They are still fucking him hardly even with reduced cost.. I’d give them nothing.

By: me

me — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:45:28 +0000

#59 X: “An extortionate fine only made possible by America’s court systems favoring corporations over citizens due to undeserved influence (including campaign funding bribery) of policymakers – something clearly demonstrated by the “punitive damages” bullshit.”

Actually, it’s not the court system itself (judicial branch) that is favoring corporations, it’s Congress and Senate (legislative branch), aided by the executive branch (FBI etc…).

The problem runs deeper though: the legislative branch could only enact such corporate monstrosities because the people failed to vigorously oppose them — either by protests on the streets and/or by voting other candidates.

It’s a social problem (voters’ apathy), not (just) a systemic problem.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:27:20 +0000

@ Brandon
Comments are moderated at torrent-freak to stop people spamming website addresses. And a few other reasons, just look at the bottom of this page. They even tell you they moderate.

And then you say ‘Guess they have to ok it with the mafiaa’ Where did you get that idea from?? you guessed…

TF ‘Please be advised we will not tolerate off topic posts, spam, trolls or personal attacks. Please help us to help you by NOT responding to such posts. ALL posts which fall into this category will be removed, including those responding to such posts.’

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:01:28 +0000

sad when EVEN your comments are moderated on freaking torrentfreak. Guess they have to ok it with the mafiaa… Bitches…

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:59:34 +0000

Awaiting moderation aholes…

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:58:57 +0000

That is fucking retarded!!! Throw out these old fucking judges that don’t know whats doing on. Charge tenenbaum the fee crappy itunes charges. 30 crappy songs at .99 cents a piece will be about 30-50 bucks and ahole RIAA spent how many thousands of bucks for their gay attorneys. The bitches still lose. He ain’t gonna pay a penny and the stuff he dl WASN’T even worth dl’ing.

Stupid doucheebaggeess…..8-P

By: X

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:47:05 +0000

@unbelievable! .. No, he’s talking about donations to pay off an an excessive, surreal and extortionate fine. (which don’t deserve to be paid anyway but that’s another issue)

An extortionate fine only made possible by America’s court systems favoring corporations over citizens due to undeserved influence (including campaign funding bribery) of policymakers – something clearly demonstrated by the “punitive damages” bullshit.

Bitch at freeloaders all you want, they simply know what the RIAA provides (an overpriced duplication service and a middle-man scheme that screws over consumers and artists alike) and how valueless mass-marketed, over-hyped, cookie-cutter content is in the modern world.

If profitability of recorded music disappeared tomorrow, only real artists would be making music… wouldn’t that be terrible?

By: AnarchyNow

AnarchyNow — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:43:47 +0000

What about a “law” that nobody but a bunch of billionaires forced and a bunch of corrupted politician passed but no-one else wants and nobody follows?
What about “democracy”, the government of people by people for people, not a government of billionaires by billionaires for billionaires?
Ah well the U$A never were a democracy at any time in their short blinded bloody history.
Joel Tenenbaum has done nothing wrong, nothing that millions and millions of Internet users are doing every day.
Do the MAFIAA except anybody to pity them? They made billions & billions out of thin air “selling” shitty propaganda more than music & movies.
Internet “Piracy” is indeed covered by the 1st amendment since it’s just the choice of not having to pay for a bunch of noises/lights if we don’t want to.
DMCA is a clear violation of the 1st amendment btw, so is the censorship of some arbitrary words on tv/music-games/websites/forums/etc, especially when forced unto people not in the U$A while the whole world knows what “fuck” and “shit” and “faggot” mean.

By: me

me — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:34:45 +0000

Looks like the US Constitution was written in a time of political sanity, long before that country turned into mindless and ruthless corporatism. That’s fantastic and great news.

However, the cynic in me expects a MAFIAA-Protection-Amendment to the Constitution soon, so that those exorbitant punitive damages remain in place and can’t be challenged. They are just too many corrupt Congresspeople and Senators there for this NOT to happen.

Just wait and see.

By: unbelievable!

unbelievable! — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:31:20 +0000

asking for donations to support stealing media… hmm

none of this legal nonsense would exist if people paid for their on-line music, movies, e-books and supported the arts and didnt support themselves getting free product

very greedy of freeloaders really

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 07:50:00 +0000

You know something that would be cool. if some of the big torrent sites (the pirate bay) made a little donation thing on their front page. The Pirate Bay get over a million hits a day, so imagine if only a tiny amount of those people gave a dollar each. Then his whole fine would be paid off. that would be awesome

By: StevO

StevO — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 07:09:13 +0000

Im telling you, we are not going to be called “pirates” for much longer. We are internet Terrorists.That will make jurys even more angry. If they used the words “file-sharer” then they dont sound as harsh. But NOOO they want to make the PIRATE sound mean and nasty. I would like to go into court if I were on trial and give everyone an oreo cookie and say, there I shared with you, now did that seem illegal to you?

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:27:05 +0000

IN YOUR FACE RIAA :)

http://www.hotne.ws

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:16:32 +0000

Man, that’s just a kick in the stomach…
So they are pursuing new business models, except their business is to protect their old, outdated model. Right…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:59:40 +0000

Take it to the supreme court Joe! Keep fighting the good fight.

By: neostyles

neostyles — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:46:42 +0000

Im all for fair reparations but such enormously exxagerated fines don’t help to detract from the RIAA’s “big evil corporation” image.

If it were up to me, I would charge $40 per infringement.

By: Black Swan Social Media, Inc.

Black Swan Social Media, Inc. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:23:36 +0000

A law-firm that goes to bat for file-sharers and operates solely through public donations. Two, three, five bucks from a few thousand of file-sharers each month, a small portion of which goes towards paying the lawyers while the rest gets “gifted” to the Defendant in the amount of whatever the final ruling requires.

All we’re saying is think about it.

By: wtfgov?

wtfgov? — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:38:42 +0000

who the fuck is RIAA, and what gives them the right to sue copyright laws?

they are not isp, the label for the artist, or the artist, and the money did not help any…

thats it, im going to sue some random person in wisconsin, because they wronged some other random person in china, and im going to use all the money for myself…