After major cases and stiff penalties imposed on people found “guilty” of using peer-to-peer file-sharing websites, the Federal Court is now in hot water over violation of its own rules. Critics cried foul over the “excessive” fines slapped against “violators”, adding that the court also violated the people’s right to due process in accordance to the US Constitution.
It will be recalled that several individuals have already been charged by the court with high penalties. One of which is the case of a single mom, Jammie Thomas-Rasset of Minnesota, who was ordered by the jury to pay some $1.9 million in damages to record labels after sharing and illegally downloading 24 music files in Kazaa last June.
Another case that was highly regarded by critics as a great example of Constitutional violation is the case of college graduate Joel Tenenbaum, where a Boston Federal jury slapped him with a $675, 000 fines to majors after sharing some 30 songs over six P2P networks.
The jury sided on the music labels after “finding” the student violated the warning over and over again for the last decade.
But despite strong imposition of the courts, the defendants remained defiant of the orders saying that they will challenge the verdict and would appeal to a higher court.
With these developments, the court is now hanging its own neck on verdicts that it has earlier imposed as it is set to answer unresolved questions over the alleged copyright infringement violations.
Critics said that the federal jury and the court may have a hard time explaining the stiff penalties imposed against infringers since its decisions are also illegal with regards to the US Constitution.
The Critics also said that the jury may have to prove once more the extent of the damage done by the violators, saying that the actual damages in one music file with regard to the copyright law would be impossible to prove.
Not even highest paid economists could prove in his testimonies that these infringers were doing the damage or how much it had costs the labels.