Salon.com Technology | Music group won't sue small downloaders: The Recording Industry Association of America says it will not go after small violators when it sues people who illegally share songs on the Internet. The assurance came in a written response to questions by Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Coleman plans to hold hearings on the RIAA's campaign, which he has labeled "excessive."
Well, I'm sure everybody is terribly relieved. That just means that the RIAA will only be engaged in just a wee bit of illegal search and seizure for large scale downloaders.
Of course, they left "de minimis" undefined, so "large scale" is probably more than, say, one.
Sherman did not specify how much illegal distribution constituted "a substantial amount," and an RIAA spokesman declined to quantify the phrase.
Coleman, a Minnesota Republican and former '60s rock roadie, says he fears that legal penalties for downloading songs don't fit the crime. Copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song. The RIAA announced plans in June to file several hundred lawsuits against people suspected of illegally sharing songs on the Internet. The RIAA said that while it has not yet filed lawsuits in its current campaign, "we assure you that we will approach these suits in a fair and equitable manner."
And I'm sure that they mean "fair and equitable" in exactly the same way that Fox News means "fair and balanced." When we all see things their way, it will be fair and equitable.
(Not that I'm defending rampant downloading. Or even de-minimal downloading.)
Posted by iain at August 19, 2003 12:38 PMComments
