If you think that $150k is a bit much for illegally downloading a song…

Posted by Claude Aiken on Mar 24, 2009 in Breaking News, Tech Law | 0 comments

Then the current status of U.S. copyright law is not to your liking.  The U.S. code currently allows copyright holders to get $150k in damages where they prove that the object of their wrath willfully infringed their copyright, regardless of actual damages.  If you hoped that the Obama administration would undermine the statute, then the Obama Department of Justice has just disappointed you.

You might remember the case of former BU student who was challenging the statutory damages portion of the Copyright Act.  Back in February, the Obama DOJ notified that the court that it might intervene to opine on the constitutionality of that portion of the Act.  Well, it did, and it sided with the statute.  Now it’s up to the judge to decide whether the statute is constitutional, unless the judge can get around the question.