Quote:
Originally Posted by whitearrow
Fair enough. Let me restate: Under US law, a judge decides matters of law, such as how to interpret a statute.
Many civil copyright cases in the US never get to a jury, btw. Either they are disposed of on pretrial motions such as summary judgment, or the parties don't request a jury trial (and in a civil case in federal court, if you don't ask for a jury, you've waived the right to one).
Criminal copyright cases (in the US) are relatively rare and generally involve mass physical piracy (e.g., the warehouse where some guys are copying DVDs to sell on the streets).
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Actually I said the same thing, presuming
it would go to trial hence my comment about "trial" - OTOH I think there are plenty of scaring/coercing ignorant John Does into coughing up thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars as "settlement" (=protection fee in mob lingo) to prevent criminal trials.
I do believe
this country has lost its mind when it comes to copyright, patent and the enforcement of them - we are long gov'd by laws bought by a little influential mafia, led by the clearly illegal RIAA/MPAA actions which, BTW, are clear cases for a RICO trial.
Now this mob is in even bigger attack: the ACTA, the big hush-hush about it tells it all - they want to institutionalize chasing "infringers" and task governments and ISPs with it worldwide.[/b[
Arrogant parasites always fall - it will be fun to watch when the EP will kill ACTA with a sweeping vote (our Congress here is deeply rotten, totally crooked by RIAA/MPAA.)