It's been nearly a decade since the music industry declared war against file sharers via its controversial policy of suing individuals supposedly identified via their IP addresses. After all this time one would expect the various companies to present a consistent, united front. As a recent court filing against Limewire shows this is absolutely not the case. Last May, federal district court judge Kimba Wood granted the record industry's request for a summary judgement against Limewire. With their winning ticket in hand, the RIAA withdrew to contemplate the level of statutory and punitive damages it felt Limewire should pay. The recording studios have never been overly interested in due diligence or common sense but this latest tops all.
Limewire, the plaintiffs allege, owes them between $400 billion and 75 trillion. The latter, written out, comes to 75,000,000,000,000.
Everyone, meet Jeeves. When not starring in Tarzan movies or enjoying the finer things in life, he moonlights as an account for the music industry.
We decided to graph a handful of additional values to put the $75 trillion in context. World GDP for 2011 is expected to be ~$65 trillion, the US national debt is currently $14.25 trillion, and the total median income for all 114,825,428 US households in 2010 is just $5.7 trillion. In other words, every single US household would have to spend all of its income buying nothing but music for over 13 years in order to arrive at what the music industry has deemed a reasonable settlement. Even the lower figure of $400 billion still amounts to seven percent of total household income in the entire country.
The legal question at the center of these absurdly high judgements is whether or not the plaintiffs can demand statutory damages from each individual infringement. A simple example is as follows: Assume that the record industry is able to recover $10 in statutory damages each time Song XYZ is shared. If 10,000 people download Song XYZ, Limewire is on the hook for $100,000 in statutory damages from just one song. If Limewire had a library of 100 songs, each of which is downloaded by 10,000 people, it'd be on the hook for $10 million.
The alternative reading is that the plaintiffs are only eligible to recover statutory damages based on the number of songs shared. If Limeware shared 100 songs, as above, it would be required to pay damages of $10 per song or $1000 total. The enormous gap between these two figures is a genuine problem for modern copyright law. Judge Wood writes: "To the best of this Court's knowledge, the issue of whether a plaintiff should be able to recover from a secondarily liable defendant multiple awards per work based on the number of direct infringers... has never been addressed in a context where the secondarily liable defendant has enabled hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals to infringe."
Having acknowledged the problem, she rules that the plaintiffs are only eligible to recover a single statutory reward per work infringed. One of the strongest arguments against the claim that Limewire owes up to $75 trillion is that it violates the judicial precept of absurdity. In arguing that Limewire should be eligible for damages on every individual download, the studios were effectively arguing that Limewire owed it more money than the entire record industry has made since Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.
This decision is important because it both acknowledges a legitimate gap in copyright law while slapping down the recording industry's blatant stupidity. It's incredibly ironic that the music studios, who unquestionably have the most to gain from balanced copyright law that addresses digital media while maintaining fair use, instead paint themselves in motley. Even if Wood had agreed with their logic, no higher court would have allowed a $400 billion fine to stand against one company. Ridiculous moves like this leave us wondering how sincere the music industry is when it speaks of finding common ground.
That is a lot of money. My question is how much money would go to the artists? Or just the label?
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 26, 2011, 12:28:31 AM
talk about Bull $hit #'s i dont think the music industry would of made enough money if everyone paid for every song anyone in the world downloaded illegally to pay off Americas debt and Usurp the world Finances 5 times Over.
i think the music industry doesent realize that their futal attempts to take away Free Mp3's of the music people truly love all it does is send Music back to the dark Ages of the 80's where Radio stations Controll things and make more money than the Artists and recording industry.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Kedzor on March 26, 2011, 11:18:20 PM
Limewire is still around? What have people not downloaded enough virus laden pron?
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 27, 2011, 03:11:53 PM
if you downloaded just Straight .Mp3 files there was not any vireses no one serving files was smart enough to rename a exe or com file to see if someone would double click it and load a virus or ad ware instead of music.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on March 28, 2011, 10:43:07 PM
Limewire is still around? What have people not downloaded enough virus laden pron?
napster is even still around
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 29, 2011, 03:53:25 AM
yeah but does it work? or is it like lime wire where you run the program and it just gives you the FBI resolution with a judge court order like lime wire?
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on March 29, 2011, 11:16:45 AM
i think you pay for songs like itunes
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 29, 2011, 03:19:24 PM
lol yeah thats dumb its like a Under ground hacking store that only dumbasses know about..
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on March 30, 2011, 08:53:50 AM
in the 90s and early 2000s paying for mp3s was unheard of
apple changed that
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 30, 2011, 10:31:45 AM
Yeah Software was meant to be free and shared the under ground hacking nerds are loosing the battle... :(
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on March 30, 2011, 11:04:02 AM
not really as things get shut down we find new ways
youtube mp3 converters, torrents etc etc
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on March 31, 2011, 01:42:59 AM
yeah tiss a shame old farts like me are stubborn and cannot just easily freely learn and be ready for change.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 01, 2011, 12:06:18 AM
you just have to read 1 tutorial that is probably the same length as a sports news column
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Wesker on April 02, 2011, 10:15:29 PM
Jello Biafra doesn't give a damn about this sort of thing, and that's why I love 'im. This is why I buy cd's, but don't support mainstream music.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 03, 2011, 01:27:11 AM
yeah but then you dont get Kate parry Actin Like [tkoold] Saying stix and stones may break my bones but chains and wips excite me :P
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Wesker on April 03, 2011, 08:17:50 AM
I'm supposed to want that?
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 03, 2011, 12:05:23 PM
lol yeah.. Your Also supposed to want ke$ha and michael Jackson lol
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Wesker on April 03, 2011, 08:26:54 PM
I can want michael jackson music no problem, but talentless hacks like kesha don't hold a candle to greats like Fugazi
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 03, 2011, 10:45:58 PM
so like all top 100 Current charts artists have no tallent?
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Wesker on April 04, 2011, 03:12:28 PM
artists like kesha, no
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 12, 2011, 06:34:12 AM
kesha is not an artist
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 12, 2011, 07:17:01 PM
Wakeup in the morning feeling like TK :P
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 13, 2011, 11:08:21 AM
Got yourself a gun, mama always said you'd be. The Chosen One.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 16, 2011, 12:01:49 AM
this article still is obnoxios theres not even 75 Trillion US $$ in the world, otherwise people wouldnt claim that its a bad thing not to pay off the US Debt.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 16, 2011, 07:38:44 AM
what would they do with that money anyway
waste it on drugs and sex
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 17, 2011, 11:13:13 PM
Dear lord, i dont think even the RIAA knows how Many people it would take to spend 75 Trillion $$ like they could divide 75 TRillion with 100,000,000 people or 1/60th of the Worlds Popularion and each would recieve 7.5 Million $
Technically If the RIAA got their so claimed 75 Trillion Lossed revenue they could give 1 3rd of america 7.5 Million$ each thats alot of Lives Screwed up with sex drugs and things they dont need LOL thats how obsurd the amount of money the RIAA claims is its so obsurd that amount of money in US currentcy does not exist.
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 18, 2011, 09:22:43 AM
not yet *moves to Australia*
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: tkoold on April 19, 2011, 03:39:21 AM
Fosters Astrailian 4 Beer
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: Flashwerewolf on April 22, 2011, 10:16:34 AM
Fosters: Australian for IMAGINARY FRIENDS
Title: Re: Record Labels Claim Limewire Liable For $75 Trillion in Damages
Post by: kinjo on April 22, 2011, 08:59:32 PM
great show, i wonder what Craig McCracken's new toon will be? ? ?