Blog: Internet
RIAA: Actual Damages Unknown
Tom Corelis (Blog) - October 21, 2007 11:35 AM
Testimony from Jammie Thomas' case discredit the litany of figures quoted over the years
In continuing with the theme of insights gleaned
from Capitol Records v.
Jammie Thomas, I bring you yet another wonderful
little tidbit to drop from the mouth of Sony’s Head of Litigation, Jennifer
Pariser: Sony – and likely the RIAA – doesn’t really know just how much money
they’ve lost due to piracy.
In the same block of testimony where the Pariser disclosed
that the RIAA’s lawsuit campaign is costing “millions” more than it earns, Thomas’
counsel pounced on the fact that the record industry was only seeking the punitive
damages available in the Copyright Act. “What are your actual damages?” he
asked.
Here we go. “We haven't stopped to calculate the amount of
damages we've suffered due to downloading,” replied Pariser, who then added
that, “that's not what's at issue here.” (Judge Michael Davis, who was
overseeing the case, quickly remanded her to stay on topic.)
This statement runs counter to the numerous claims that the
RIAA has made over the years regarding piracy and the industry’s actual
suffering. One of the more recent claims, found under the “students doing
reports” FAQ section of the RIAA’s
web site, cites a conservative estimate of $300 million worth of losses. Another study, released by the
Institute for Policy Innovation, quoted worldwide losses due to piracy at $12.5
billion USD and over 71,000 jobs.
Pariser could have
easily cited either of those numbers as part of her explanation of ‘actual
damages’ – unless, of course, the facts regarding that those figures are less
than certain. Remember, she’s under oath here.
Over the years, there’s been a long tradition in debunking
the dollar amounts that the RIAA has cited as money lost due to so-called
piracy. People find all sorts of interesting explanations: lost CD sales are
actually converted to music
purchases at iTunes, lost CD sales are due to a decreased demand and
rising prices, that piracy actually helps to promote the purchases of
music, and so on and so forth. While I’m not going to argue that piracy doesn’t
have some kind of effect, it does
seem that if the industry wants to convince more government officials of its
plight, at least it could get its figures straight.
When and if the music industry releases some honest-to-God figured
that aren’t skewed, the big question then becomes one of trust: can we believe those numbers? Will we, the people, ever
believe a word to come out of their mouths?
"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." -- Michael Dell, after being asked what to do with Apple Computer in 1997
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