Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Three juries *in a row* imposed huge fines on Jammie Thomas. That's at least some evidence that "regular" people don't have any sympathy for file sharing.
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No, that's evidence that copyright law has ridiculous penalties and complexities and "regular" people will go along with what lawyers tell them, because unlike situations of theft or assault, we don't grow up knowing how much use of someone else's material is fair use.
If they'd wanted $400,000 for "unlicensed broadcasting" because Jammie Thomas was playing a boombox in her yard and you could hear it from the freeway, the jury would know that's ridiculous. But they're less sure about digital files; the whole technology may have to be explained to them--with lawyers getting to slant the explanations in accordance with the understanding of the judges.