On Thursday, Jammie Thomas was found to have “committed willful violation” of the copyrights of 24 songs she shared via P2P and the jury awarded the RIAA and the media companies $1.92 million USD, equivalent to $80,000 for each song.
Quite obviously, the RIAA will never see that full amount, but thanks to a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the group may not see a cent.
Ira Rothken, the US-based lawyer who in the past has represented public torrent indexers TorrentSpy and Isohunt says Thomas may be able to get out of the debt through bankruptcy court, something that was not an option until that recent San Francisco decision.
The case, Barboza vs. New Form, made it clear that “willful violation” is different in civil court than in bankruptcy court. “Now her conversation must be ‘Hey, if we can’t settle, I’m going to go forward and file for bankruptcy,’ and they’ll say ‘Well, you’ll have to have another trial,’”added Rothken.
Now, in copyright cases, “willful” must imply the defendant’s intent was to cause harm, a point the RIAA did not prove in their case against Thomas.
Kathryn Bartow, a lawyer with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, works for the major film studios, but also agrees it will be hard for the RIAA to collect the money:
“(Barboza) serves as a warning to trademark and copyright owners as well as the counsel who represent them in willful infringement cases. When presenting evidence and crafting jury instructions, beware. In willful infringement cases, to prevent an individual defendant from having its debt discharged in bankruptcy, the plaintiff should consider introducing sufficient evidence and including additional jury instructions to satisfy the Bankruptcy Code’s definitions of ‘willful and malicious.’”
[More]>>
Result for: torrentspy
According to TorrentFreak, torrent popularity and torrent site traffic continues to grow with every passing day despite heated efforts by anti-piracy groups such as the MPAA and IFPI to slow piracy.
Using data from the traffic Tracker Alexa, TF compiled a list of the 25 most popular torrent sites and found the amount of growth since December 2007 to be, in a word, explosive. Many saw 40 percent or higher growth. Some saw as high as 400 percent growth.
The list, compiled originally here is as follows and shows the Alexa rank for the sites for December 2007, March 2008, and the increase (or decrease).
Rank # Torrent Site Alexa Rank (Dec 07) Alexa Rank (Mar 08) Change (%)
1. mininova.org 63 53 + 19 %
2. ThePirateBay.org 182 130 + 40 %
3. isohunt.com 170 147 + 16 %
4. Torrentz.com 231 192 + 20 %
5. BtJunkie.org 689 469 + 47 %
6. torrentspy.com 376 585 - 36 %
7. TorrentReactor.net 909 616 + 48 %
8. GamesTorrents.com 942 641 + 47 %
[More]>>
Result for: torrentspy
Just days after being hit with one of the largest fines in copyright infringement history, a lawyer for the now dead torrent search engine TorrentSpy has said the business is bankrupt and they will not be able to pay the fine.
The fine, $110 million USD, was ordered two days ago by a judge, following a high profile case brought forth by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Because the site refused to turn over any internal documents the judge also ruled that the site can never go online again.
According to attorney Ira Rothken the owners of TorrentSpy have filed for bankruptcy protection in England “and have no appreciable assets.”
“This was a Hollywood publicity stunt,” Rothken added.
While the site is set to appeal the ruling, the MPAA says it is still going to go after the cash and hopes the ruling will serve as a reminder that they are still on the prowl.
