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RIAA v. Thomas Heads to Supreme Court

It’s said that “Good men never die”, and it seems to hold true for bad court cases too. The court case between Thomas and the RIAA has now been dragging on for more than 5 years, but the home stretch might be in sight as the case comes to the US Supreme Court

This case is notable for being both the first major file-sharing case in the US over the P2P activity of a regular user; multiple court cases and the vast swings in damages; and the size of the damages awarded, despite the lack of evidence. (For those commenters that like to claim she stole, had it been a theft case, she’d have won years ago)

The appeals court sent things back to the original $222,000 award back in September, which has now paved the way for an appeal to the US Supreme Court, if it’ll hear it (they didn’t hear Tenenbaum, or Harper).

It’s unlikely to go well for Thomas as the Supreme Court is very pro-copyright, putting work back under copyright that had already entered the public domain in a case earlier this year.

Nor will the artists allegedly harmed by piracy benefit much. In the (extremely unlikely) event of Thomas finding some way to come up with the cash, it won’t go to the artists, as we’ve seen before with the Limewire settlement last year, or the Pirate Bay case. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise us if the artists were being billed for the hundreds of thousands of dollars this case has cost to prosecute.

The only winners out of all this are music industry lawyers, and what does that say for how well copyright is working?

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  • Guest Lover

    It really doesn’t matter if the court grants cert. The only important to celebrate is that the RIAA burns more money they will never get back. If I ever got sued, I would just prolong the case depleting the plaintiff economically and at last commit suicide.

    • guest

      Suicide? Flee to a different country, rinse and repeat.They won’t persue 1 man or woman over p2p shit or will they?

    • Mephitidae

      Suicide? Just declare bankruptcy and the long legal case will all be for not…

      • 1231

        You can’t file bankruptcy for criminal cases, only civil. And seeing as how this is now a federal case…

        • downunder

          if hes unemployed and living on a social benefit they wont get much will they… perhaps they will deduct $1 a week
          so he cant buy milk to feed his family

          arr must be so good to be a rich fat cat that can afford a nice life

        • asdf

          Since you didn’t bother reading, it’s a FEMALE.

        • BJonesTF

          It’s a civil case, brought under FEDERAL laws.

          Had it been a criminal case, she would have been acquitted in 2007 for lack of evidence. In fact, we even did a piece examining the relavent laws had it been a criminal case, last year – http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-infringement-and-theft-%e2%80%93-the-difference-110827/

          I even included the link in the story under “She’d have won”, which she would have.

  • Anywan

    Maybe one day our Supreme Court (No Lettuce, etc.) will consist of pro-piracy pals. In any case, their court decision will be overturned in the future due to the ever-increasing amount of pirates in mainstream culture and the tech industry.
    Once we migrate to hidden sites and I^2P torrents, we’ll be hopefully unstoppable and undetectable!

    • MusicFreak

      if any pirates make it in the mainstream culture or tech industry they wouldn’t want piracy to continue otherwise they wouldn’t make any money. i’m a musician/producer and i’ve spent thousands producing music but i haven’t made a dime off of my recordings. i’m not here to complain that musicians aren’t making shit, i’m here to say that if people keep excessively pirating music, the industry will continue to plummet into an abyss full of cheaply produced garbage backed by spoiled listeners who feel entitled take art without paying for it.

      if you find yourself downloading the discography of an artist, you should at least have the decency to support them by buying merch or admission to their shows. the only pro-piracy musician you’ll ever meet is one who is selling out arenas, and chances are they won’t be part of your fantasy Supreme Court.

      • superfly fishyguy

        After excessive laughter at reading this post, I feel the urge to tell you why. Where is the evidence, true evidence that DL’ing is killing music? Festivals are sold out, or near as dam it all over Europe every summer, people paying shit loads of money to soak it up, yet here you are making allegations. The here and now is digital and the future is about self management, not control by yesterdays industry. Join the revolution or fade away.

      • Indie Artist

        I’m an indie artist, and I give my stuff away for free across multiple torrent sites and I still make a living out of it.

        Most pirates I know will purchase good content. You must not be making money because you are producing Hollywood-style garbage.

      • Steve070

        The computer industry has profited from “piracy” for decades- look at the history of the BIOS for example.
        Hollywood was born from “piracy” including the music industry, (the latter being a somewhat more convulted history).

        Your absurd assertions relate far more to incompetant management or, simply, your not commercial!

      • Foeoeo

        No of course you’re not whining about not making any money. Ever considered you’re broke because you’re actually talentless?

      • Anonymouse

        “cheaply produced garbage” well this is what the industry is putting out now. they don’t even want to pay for talent scouts so make programs like xFactor so they can make more money.

  • Ophelia Millais

    Misleading headline. Replace “Heads” with “Could Be Headed”.

  • http://nejtillpirater.wordpress.com/ Nejtillpirater

    “Nor will the artists allegedly harmed by piracy benefit much. In the (extremely unlikely) event of Thomas finding some way to come up with the cash, it won’t go to the artists, as we’ve seen before with the Limewire settlement last year, or the Pirate Bay case. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise us if the artists were being billed for the hundreds of thousands of dollars this case has cost to prosecute.”

    The purpose of such trials is not to pay the artists, the purpose is to stop or at least reduce piracy. Precedent sentences will also help a lot. Also, the pirates will understand that running piracy sites will make you go to jail and be in debt for the rest of your life, maybe not so interesting anymore, unless you’re a moron.

    • BJonesTF

      Actually, the purposes of damages is to recompense for loss.
      Actual damages is used for when damages can be calculated. If it can’t, then there’s Statutory damages. However, both are only intended to be used to “make whole” for losses suffered due to actions. Since the artist is apparently harmed (not just by the same ‘lost sales’ as the label claims, but by the attendant ‘ill will’ that goes with these suits, to not compensate the artists undermines the intent of the damages.
      However, if you want to PUNISH, which is the implication you made, you can’t use actual OR statutory damages, you have a third class, called PUNITIVE (which means ‘punishment’.) There were no punitive damages.

      Also, damages like this may be subject to discharge under bankruptcy proceedings, depending on the judge.

      Facts, gota love em.

      • Bill_Bates_40

        You are not entirely correct. The purpose of COMPENSATORY damages is to “make whole” the party suffering the loss. The purpose of EXEMPLARY damages is to punish and deter the conduct which brought about the suit in the first place. However, exemplary damages only exist at the state level, and therefore only compensatory damages were awarded in this particular case as it originated in federal court.

    • McCheezits

      >Also, the pirates will understand that running piracy sites will make you go to jail and be in debt for the rest of your life…

      Running so-called ‘piracy‘ sites does not cause one to go into debt. Usually their debt(s) are caused by other factors that are not related to piracy in any way. Plus, most of these websites host items legally as well.

      Do the research, you silly goose.

    • Roachdaddy

      Paint thy self black – moron you is.

      • Who

        nicely put.

  • Anon

    Copyright is working just fine as long as the distributors get the money.

  • ScrewEwe2

    Since the cases that the SCOTUS chooses to hear usually address constitutional issues or federal law, I’m doubtful that they will take this case up. I hope they do, because the tactics, punishments and extortion schemes that the MAFIAA and their lawyers use, are beyond ridiculous and obscenely cruel and unusual, but again, I doubt they will take this case up.

  • Who

    well shit if they were actually going by US copyright law back 5 years ago this case should have been thrown out then.

    but still NO WARE in US copyright law does it say ANYTHING about THEFT. and it NEVER HAS.

    but of coarse some dick head wants false unjust justice. that’s the American way.

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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