RIAA may be forced to accept reduced damages

In a Texas court case, the recording industry group may be forced to accept a lower penalty per song as part of an "innocent infringement" defense by one defendant.

Whitney Harper, a college-aged woman, had previously admitted to copyright infringement through the use of the Kazaa P2P system when she was 16. However, unlike other defendants who had plead guilty, her lawyers are providing an interesting defense.

A section of US copyright law allows for those who have been charged with infringement to argue ignorance of the illegality of their actions. If the copyright owner cannot prove the defendant willfully infringed, and the court agrees that the infringer did not believe his or her actions were illegal, "the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200," it reads.

Typically, damages per song can be $750 or more, and can be increased to as much as $150,000 per occurrence.

Harper submitted a statement to the court saying that she did not understand file sharing or copyright law at the time of the infringement, and that Kazaa never informed her that material she downloaded may have been illegal.

RIAA attempted to argue that she knew what she was doing -- curiously rebutting that the compact discs which the music was ripped from includes these warnings. There's one problem though: Harper would have never seen these warnings.

She also argued that she thought the downloading process was similar to listening to radio over the Internet, further bolstering her claim.

The recording industry was looking for the courts to bring a summary judgment against Harper, although it had not completely argued to the satisfaction of the court that Harper understood the ramifications of her actions.

"At the summary judgment stage, all factual disputes must be construed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, in this case, Defendant," US District Judge Xavier Rodriguez wrote.

Harper's success could set precedent for future defendants to begin arguing with case law that an "innocent infringer" defense is indeed valid. While others have attempted to use the strategy and failed, it seems those defendants may have had a more direct notification that what they were doing was illegal. For a long time, Kazaa provided no notification that it trafficked in copyrighted works, and it was during that time that Harper may have downloaded the material.

7 Responses to RIAA may be forced to accept reduced damages

© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.