Reply #42: and even that was wrong. its $200 to $150,000

[onenote]

Actually, its $750 to $30,000 in the ordinary case. If the plaintiff proves that the infringer acted willfully, the amount can, if the judge decides the facts warrant -- raise it to $150,000. On the other hand, if the accused shows that they acted "innocently" (i.e., without knowledge that they were infringing) then the amount of damages that a judge can decide to award drops to as low as $200.

And folks should keep in mind that several years ago, mp3.com got hit with what was the largest statutory damages award for infringment in history for making unauthorized copies of entire CDs as part of a commercial enterprise. The amount of damages: $25,000 per CD (or less than $2000 per song). Based on that precedent (which itself was roundly criticized as excessive), its unlikely in the extreme that someone who uploads a few music files not for profit is going to to be hit with anything approaching $150K in damages -- or even $25K. THere is one case that I know of where someone accused of uploading over 1700 songs was held liable for uploading around 24 of them at around $9000 per song -- and that was a judgment imposed by a jury that was instructed it could award as little as $750 and as much as $30K. It appears that they weren't terribly sympathetic to the accused but nonetheless still decided to pick a damages award in the bottom half of the legal range.