AfterDawn: News

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) will not be intervening in Atlantic v. Boggs - a lawsuit brought against defendant Michael Boggs for allegedly sharing music without permission - as the RIAA and Boggs have agreed to dismiss the action with prejudice. The DoJ was deciding whether or not to intervene in the case as Boggs filed a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment that the damages sought by the RIAA ($750 per track) were unconstitutionally excessive.

Last November, defendant Marie Lindor accused the RIAA of seeking excessive damages. The judge presiding over that case (Universal v. Lindor) allowed Lindor to argue that the actual damages suffered by the record companies was around 70c per track, which is about what record companies make from each music download sale.



The record companies attempted to block Lindor from attempts to gain access to the wholesale price per track, saying it was highly confidential data. However, a lawyer for Universal later said that 70c per track was in the correct range. When Michael Boggs challenged the constitutionality of the statutory damages section of the Copyright Act in his counterclaim, the DoJ filed a motion asking the court to allow it 60 days to decide whether to intervene in the case.

A brief arguing for the constitutionality of the $750 per track figure demanded by the RIAA would have been interesting, but now it wont happen at least in this case.

Source:
Ars Technica

Written by: James Delahunty @ 31 Jul 2007 18:18