Ignorance Of Copyright Law Defence Used In Court US Successfully

[GhostShip]

Its seems it is possible to mitigate a copyright offence by proving your ignorance of the law.

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/08/innocent-infringement-defense-may.html

In Maverick v. Harper, a San Antonio, Texas, case of which we were unaware until yesterday, the RIAA has been pursuing a college age defendant who admitted to having committed copyright infringement using the Kazaa program when she was 16 years old.

Although admitting copyright infringement, she asserted an innocent infringement defense under 17 USC 504(c)(2), which could reduce the statutory damages to $200 per infringement.
The RIAA argued that defendant could not qualify for 'innocent infringer' status, since CD's of the songs sold in stores have copyright notices.

The Court disagreed, and denied the RIAA's motion for summary judgment unless the RIAA agrees to accept $200 per infringement:Plaintiffs request the statutory minimum damages of $750 per work rather than a calculation of actual damages. Defendant contends that due to her age—sixteen years old at the time of the infringement—and technological experience, she did not intentionally violate Plaintiffs’ copyrights and should therefore be considered at most an innocent infringer.

The damages provision of the Copyright Act provides that a plaintiff may elect to seek
minimum damages of $750 per work. 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(1). However, it also provides that “where the infringer . . . was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200.” 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2). The defendant has the burden to prove the lack of intent necessary for innocent infringement. Id.

The victim of this extortion-style case will doubtless be paying out at least $7800 but this is chicken feed to the other single ruling thats still being contested of $212, 000.

[White Stripes]

Its seems it is possible to mitigate a copyright offence by proving your ignorance of the law.

IMO considering how convoluted and confusing copyright law is, every file sharer should get off in this manner (or less) till they fix 'copyright law'

* Silver Stripes wishes he could use the html hes used to typing instead of ubb code...