Jesse Jordan (the RPI student who ran a search engine and was sued by the RIAA) was, the RIAA claims, liable for $15,000,000 in damages. When you add up the damages claimed against all four of these students (who again had built search engines), the RIAA was asking, on some estimates, for $100 billion dollars. That�s because, under our law as interpreted by the RIAA, downloading one song makes you liable for $150,000. Or, on the RIAA�s view of the law, cheaper to defraud Californian�s of $9 billion than download 10 songs from a p2p server.

I agree with your general point but the numbers seem wrong. The RIAA’s claim is between $750 – $150,000 per song. The lowend number would be the best they would likely do in a non-commercial case. So you would have to have around 1400 offending songs to hit the fine numbers.

Given that the RIAA seems to be settling their claims at around $3000.00 a pop (the term nuisance suit springs to mind) the music biz seems to be gaining some sense of balance.

But this is the bit that concerns me: �not including the extraordinarily high prices we now face because of long-term contracts signed at the height of the crisis.�

Why the passive voice? There was someone clearly responsible for signing these long-term deals � the Governor.

Let’s face the facts: Governor Davis sure made it pretty easy for �Big Energy� to screw California. Davis got in way over his head trying to wheel and deal in the energy market. These long-term energy deals that will cost Californians billions are deals for which he must be held accountable.

I don’t mind piling on the big energy companies and Corporate America when they deserve it, but let�s not let the elected the officials � even the ones for whom we have political sympathies � off the hook. �The extraordinarily high prices Californian�s now face because Governor Davis signed ill-advised long-term contracts at the height of the crisis� will likely cost more than the $9 billion Big Energy is on the hook for. Why don�t we sue Governor Davis? (or at least recall him).

Also, let�s watch our logic here, people. Yes, the $1 million fine seems small compared to the other fines cited, but the question is, was the fine just. The answer is �probably not� . But that�s not proved or disproved by the other fines.

I don�t know exactly how much of that $9 billion should be blamed on Davis�s ineptitude or nefarious energy traders. The facts of the case have not really been considered in any of these postings.

http://shumans.com/musicvote/

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.