Department of Justice doesn't know the meaning of the word.
The Minnesota mother who vowed to fight the Recording Industry Association of America after she was convicted of illegally downloading copyrighted music now has another heavyweight to content with.
The U.S. Justice Department has sided with the RIAA and a jury's $222,000 judgment against Jammie Thomas for illegally downloading and sharing copyrighted music. The amount breaks down to $9,250 per song. The case, Capitol v. Thomas, was the first file-sharing lawsuit to make it to trial. It gained widespread attention because of that.
Thomas vowed to fight the judgment and appealed. Her lawyer argued that the damages were too steep and that the clause in the Copyright Act violates due process because it's "severe" and out of sync with actual damages. The clause allows fines up to $150,000 per illegally downloaded song.
In a court filing, DOJ argued that the law allows penalties to be steeper than actual damages.
The agency said that the damages awarded under the Copyright Act's statutory damages provision didn't violate due process and aren't so severe and oppressive to be disproportionate to the offense or obviously unreasonable.
Justice ? This isn't justice, it's a freaking disaster. Talk about swatting a fly with a sledge hammer. If the bought and paid for DOJ thinks $ 150,000 per song downloaded is reasonable then i'd like to see them explain how.