MPAA Says No Proof Needed in P2P Copyright Infringement Lawsuits

[cycocelica]

MPAA Says No Proof Needed in P2P Copyright Infringement Lawsuits

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances," MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

"It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement," van Uitert wrote on behalf of the movie studios, a position shared with the Recording Industry Association of America, which sued Thomas, the single mother of two.

Isn't this what we did to "witches" in Salem?

Lets just throw our rights out the window! YAY!

 

[zioxide]

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.

LOL

That's it, I'm suing everyone I walk by on the street for $1 million dollars. I won't even have to prove if they did anything.

 

[rhett7660]

You have to love both the MPAA and the RIAA....

Good lord what next..

 

[David G.]

It's a shame 99.999% of all attorneys give the others such a bad name.

 

[Wild-Bill]

The MPAA and RIAA need to wise the hell up. They need to convince the studios to restructure the game. STOP spending so much damn money on movies. STOP letting recording artists languish in a studio for months at a time with the clock running. Don't let them into the studio until they are ready to record. Stop paying artists such ridiculous amounts of money. Streamline the processes.

They are in serious need of some business process re-engineering. But I guess they prefer to take the easy route and just sue at random until they find someone to pay up.

Very soon you'll see the MPAA and RIAA having to hide their offices much like the Civil Liberties folks have to do. hahhahaha

 

[andiwm2003]

so we throw all gun owners in jail because they have guns. no need to proof they ever shot somebody. and all people who have cars. because they could have driven drunk. no need to prove that either. how about a fence around the US and declare it a jail for all citizens. oh wait, they actually start building a fence.....

is there a way to declare the mpaa unconstitutional and make it disappear?

 

[0098386]

so we throw all gun owners in jail because they have guns.

We do that here recently a father found bullets in his sons room, not even a gun. He shopped him to the police and got 3 years (even though the mandatory sentence is usually 5 for possession of a firearm). And rightly so.

On this news? Ouch. Surely this won't actually go through?

 

[AppleMatt]

Madness. Over here in the UK a young lady got fined £75 because her three year old kid dropped some sausage roll on the floor whilst eating it. A pigeon ate it all up, but that didn't stop the council doing her for littering.

Even better, when she contested it in court she lost, had to pay their legal fees and a 'victim charge'. Victim charge?!

AppleMatt

 

[nbs2]

I think you guys are misunderstanding the issue, while still rightly being upset.

From what I can tell, what is being asked is that rather than present direct evidence of the violation, that circumstantial evidence be admitted. So, we know that song X is being shared by person A. It is near impossible to tell if person B downloaded X from A, but since A is a source that uses the same sharing service as B and A is allowing X to be shared, B probably got X from A.

This is still disturbing, because it would greatly expand the ease with which claims could be successful, and could allow the AAs to dip multiple times. Additionally, just because something is being shared doesn't mean anybody downloaded it.