Quote:
Originally Posted by khalleron
I'm not so sure that the ability to sue for punitive damages against copyright is a good thing, anyway. It's not like medical or legal malpractice where lives or health are at stake. If someone illegally profits from your work, then yes, getting your own money back is a good thing, but I don't see how Society benefits from excessivley punishing a recoverable economic loss.
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It's a way of punishing corporations that take advantage of individuals. A company that, for example, grabs lyrics without crediting them and sells songbooks/allows songs to be recorded from them, can be sued for the money they made. But if the song didn't sell well, that might be a miniscule amount... not enough to discourage further attempts in the future, especially given how many copyright owners can't afford to file suit even if they know they could win. (Especially given how many companies can practice deliberate delaying tactics.)
It's also a way of punishing deliberately unethical behavior that isn't strictly illegal. Most of us acknowledge a difference between a mistake--perhaps thinking a set of lyrics were in the public domain, or believing a contract had been signed that handed over full rights for an initial fee--and outright scams--soliciting teens & college students to send in lyrics for "review and evaluation," and grabbing the ones that look good and hoping the authors won't be able to do anything about it later, when they find their song on MTV.
Punitive damages allows us to say, "some legal actions are more reprehensible than others, when tied into a crime." They also allow us to say, "some crimes are more harmful than the specific dollar amount that went to the wrong person."
Copyright violations can erode the trust in publishers, which authors need to sign contracts. Without that trust, authors might not publish, or choose more limited venues. Since the purpose of copyright (in the US) is to "promote progress in the sciences and useful arts," actions that impede that progress should be punished more than technical violations that only cost someone income.