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Xtrm
24 Mar 2009, 12:03pm
The Obama administration has sided with the recording industry in a copyright lawsuit against an alleged peer-to-peer pirate, a move that echoes arguments previously made by the Bush administration.

A legal brief filed Sunday in a case that the Recording Industry Association of America is pursuing in Massachusetts argues that federal copyright law is not so overly broad and its penalties not so unduly severe that they count as "punitive." Current law allows a copyright holder to receive up to $150,000 in damages per violation.

The brief says "the harms caused by copyright infringement" on the Internet include limiting "a copyright owner's ability to distribute legal copies of copyrighted works. The public in turn suffers from lost jobs and wages, lost tax revenue, and higher prices for honest purchasers of copyrighted works."

The Obama administration's choice to intervene in the Massachusetts lawsuit comes after the Bush administration joined the RIAA's lawsuit against Jammie Thomas. It, too, defended the constitutionality of the statute--one of the Justice Department's duties--that a jury decided Thomas had violated. (Thomas has been awarded a new trial.)

The Massachusetts case could prove to be an important one. A group of Harvard law school students, with the help of Harvard law Professor Charles Nesson, is providing defendant Joel Tenenbaum with an aggressive legal defense. They aim to convince the courts that the law the RIAA relies on is so Draconian it amounts to "essentially a criminal statute" and is therefore unconstitutional; that it grants too much authority to copyright holders; and that it violates due process rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Those are the arguments that the Justice Department is attempting to refute. Its brief says that while the administration "does not address" the nonconstitutional arguments, "if the court finds it necessary to reach the constitutional questions at this time, then it should reject each of defendant's constitutional claims."

It adds: "The remedy of statutory damages for copyright infringement has been a cornerstone of our federal copyright law since 1790, and Congress acted reasonably in crafting the current incarnation of the statutory damages provision. Congress sought to account for both the difficulty of quantifying damages in the context of copyright infringement and the need to deter millions of users of new technology from infringing copyrighted works in an environment where many violators believe that their activities will go unnoticed."

Until recently, a top Justice Department official was representing the RIAA in the Massachusetts case. In early January, Barack Obama picked Tom Perrelli for associate attorney general; he was listed as a "lead attorney" for the RIAA in the case and had filed a formal notice of withdrawal less than two weeks earlier.

On February 4, Obama picked as associate deputy attorney general Donald Verrilli, who represented the RIAA in the Jammie Thomas case. Verrilli didn't file a motion to withdraw from the case until last week.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10201831-38.html

I regret supporting Obama.

Red
24 Mar 2009, 12:06pm
I regret supporting Obama.

That will be the slogan for the next 4 years.

He's only been in office for a couple months, just keep watching.

Obama claimed to not be interested in helping lobbyists and special interests, lol, people believed him.

I'll continue to watch and laugh cynically as more and more people realize who they have put into power.

Change?

LegalSmash
24 Mar 2009, 12:08pm
This was coming a mile away. Media, musicians, actors all decided to support him, can you guess why?

LOL. We may become france, but not as to downloading.

Red
24 Mar 2009, 12:11pm
You can't have hollywood give you a reach-around and not return the favor, that's all Obama's doing.

Astrum
24 Mar 2009, 04:31pm
No one should be surprised by this. If you are then you didn't do your research before voting.

andre1028
24 Mar 2009, 05:03pm
you didn't do your research before voting.

Not even us Canadians do these days :P

Slavic
25 Mar 2009, 01:30pm
From what I recall the RIAA has stopped creating new law suits against individuals and is instead trying to get the ISPs to front the man power in the P2P war.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html

Astrum
25 Mar 2009, 05:48pm
From what I recall the RIAA has stopped creating new law suits against individuals and is instead trying to get the ISPs to front the man power in the P2P war.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html

Trying? Think again (http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/25/1133220)

:-]
25 Mar 2009, 06:26pm
Unfortunately, I'm not of legal age to vote. I really was against the two main candidates (McCain and Obama) as I felt they are the worst out of their party. I was really hoping for Ron Paul to get the nod. Anyways, during the whole election and campaigning process, everyone in my school, teachers, students, and etc. all lobbied in support for Obama. I was the black sheep of the group as I was against him winning. If I had the opportunity to vote, I would have voted for McCain considering he was the lesser of the two evils. I hope he proves me wrong and improves his decision making before the country's economic crisis plummets even further was what's projected...but I don't see it happening any time soon.

Red
25 Mar 2009, 06:41pm
;173860']Unfortunately, I'm not of legal age to vote. I really was against the two main candidates (McCain and Obama) as I felt they are the worst out of their party. I was really hoping for Ron Paul to get the nod. Anyways, during the whole election and campaigning process, everyone in my school, teachers, students, and etc. all lobbied in support for Obama. I was the black sheep of the group as I was against him winning. If I had the opportunity to vote, I would have voted for McCain considering he was the lesser of the two evils. I hope he proves me wrong and improves his decision making before the country's economic crisis plummets even further was what's projected...but I don't see it happening any time soon.

Yeah, pretty much how most of us that voted for mccain felt

PotshotPolka
25 Mar 2009, 06:44pm
Yeah, pretty much how most of us that voted for mccain felt

Imagine how the people that actually voted Libertarian felt.

Astrum
25 Mar 2009, 07:20pm
Imagine how the people that actually voted Libertarian felt.

There are plenty of places to run from, but no place to run too.

PotshotPolka
25 Mar 2009, 07:54pm
There are plenty of places to run from, but no place to run too.

I'm quite partial to Singapore.

Red
25 Mar 2009, 09:41pm
I'm quite partial to Singapore.

I love singapore.

Some of the best Economic freedoms and very PRO-business/corporations, but enough big brotherism to prevent douche tards from running around.

It's like a giant CS server with AOs everywhere.

I didn't mind living in Singapore with its big brother mentality because that's what they've been from the beginning, and it's no surprise, they don't claim to be anything they're not.

I DO NOT like United States which is supposed to be Freer than most in general, slowly turning into Singapore, but without the same Economic freedoms that Singapore has, or the low crime rate, instead they like to assrape corporations and entrepreneurs here and basically force companies to move abroad and outsource.

:-]
25 Mar 2009, 10:44pm
I actually feel the US needs to garner some ideas from other nations that have been succeeding. For example, look at South Korea. Within the past 40 years, it has become of the fastest advanced economically developed countries in the world. Compared to other countries hurting by the recession, SK has been prospering. Albeit, not by much, they are gaining positive funds instead of negative funds.

LegalSmash
25 Mar 2009, 11:14pm
It goes beyond money in the coffers though, it also consists of these countries willing to put proliferation of business ties above petty squabbles by the people and half witted politicians looking for a strawman to burn.

Any ultralib protesting walmart will decry its evils, its pay scale, etc, but when confronted with the almighty question, "well then what should they do differently" they cannot come up with feasible ideas.

Here, rather than making feasible Ideas, our congressmen pitch pipedreams, as a whole group, they pass laws that scarcely help the consumer, and give businesses power in the wrong ways to aid proliferation of good practices.

For example:

While the government votes AGAINST companies being able to police their workforce against bad health habits (smoking, obesity, drug use), or votes to severely restrict said power, it votes FOR manufacturers being able to shut out distributors that sell products at discounts in stores with little to no service components, basically injuring, if not killing the discount and or resale market of most goods.. Look at PC games as an example.. try to sell a newly released game to another person, and you will probably be selling him a drink coaster. The CD is nearly pointless any longer, which I don't particularly disagree with doing, but the lack of owning a physical copy IS problematic, because it implies I am basically renting the game, subject to the companies good graces.

This being said, figure that what needs to change is the manner by which we elect, or perhaps the party system that disenfranchises a sizeable portion of the population for the sake of making the system "streamlined" (which by no means it is).

PotshotPolka
26 Mar 2009, 06:00am
I love singapore.

Some of the best Economic freedoms and very PRO-business/corporations, but enough big brotherism to prevent douche tards from running around.

It's like a giant CS server with AOs everywhere.

I didn't mind living in Singapore with its big brother mentality because that's what they've been from the beginning, and it's no surprise, they don't claim to be anything they're not.

I DO NOT like United States which is supposed to be Freer than most in general, slowly turning into Singapore, but without the same Economic freedoms that Singapore has, or the low crime rate, instead they like to assrape corporations and entrepreneurs here and basically force companies to move abroad and outsource.

And isn't English their language of action because the majority of the population is ex-chinese? Not to derail the thread.

LegalSmash
26 Mar 2009, 07:07am
And isn't English their language of action because the majority of the population is ex-chinese? Not to derail the thread.

From what I understand, English is their national language because they want to be able to freely work with the leaders of the free world, at the time they decided that.

Red would know best though.

Red
26 Mar 2009, 09:59am
English is their National Language because they used to be a British Colony and the founding leaders of Singapore being very mostly business savvy Chinese folk (The Chinese are hated throughout much of Asia for their business instincts, much like Jews in the west are, seriously, not a joke), decided to make English their national language.

That and the fact that it is VERY multi-ethnic so it would be easy for them to all communicate if they have one national language. Though Mandarin, Malay and Tamil/Hindi are commonly spoken as well.

Jaffa
26 Mar 2009, 10:31am
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10201831-38.html

I regret supporting Obama.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7094/66344745.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=66344745.jpg)

Italian Jew
26 Mar 2009, 11:08am
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7094/66344745.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=66344745.jpg)

I missed that episode of South Park.

Red
26 Mar 2009, 11:50am
I missed that episode of South Park.

www.southparkstudios.com

see them all for free.

LegalSmash
26 Mar 2009, 12:38pm
sadly that was the only good part of that episode