Copyright Law

DOJ motion to intervene granted, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Cloud

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

The Department of Justice's motion for leave to intervene, on the side of the RIAA, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Cloud, has been granted. The motion had been unopposed.

The Government's brief argued that the RIAA's statutory damages theory, which sought as much as $150,000 in statutory damages for infringement of a single MP3 file, survived due process scrutiny under a 1919 Supreme Court case which upheld an Arkansas statutory damages award for $75, awarded under an Arkansas railroad fare overcharge statute.

The Government also argued that the Court should ignore the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in State Farm v. Campbell, which followed its 1996 decision, BMW v. Gore.

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Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).