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FC: Capitol Hill won't help Napster; Napster faces whopping fine
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 10:29:33 -0500
********** Sen. Leahy's statement on Napster ruling: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/02/13/0046253 ********** http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41757,00.html Napster May Pay Dearly for This by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com) 2:00 a.m. Feb. 13, 2001 PST WASHINGTON -- When a federal appeals court decided the Napster case on Monday, it granted the embattled file-trading service a temporary stay of execution. But Napster not only has to worry about the threat of being shut down -- it also faces a very real possibility of whopping fines for copyright violations. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the proceedings in the district court showed the company's executives had "actual and constructive" knowledge that not-exactly-legal MP3 swapping was happening. Translation: Statutory damages that could quickly add up to big bucks. A federal judge in New York ruled last year, for instance, that MP3.com was liable for $25,000 in damages for each CD copied. "It's extremely likely that Napster will have a very large financial judgment against them," said R. Polk Wagner, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's law school. [...] http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41766,00.html Congress Sits Back and Listens by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com) and Ryan Sager 2:00 a.m. Feb. 13, 2001 PST WASHINGTON -- Neither Napster nor the recording industry should expect any help from Capitol Hill. Republican and Democratic legislators signaled Monday that the lawsuit wending its way through a federal appeals court is one high-stakes tussle that nobody in town wants to get involved with. The lengthy decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is based on fine points of copyright law -- such as the Audio Home Recording Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- and any changes to the law could improve the chances of either the plaintiffs or the defendant winning their case. That is, if Congress wanted to intervene. "I don't think you're going to see legislation in the Congress.... We just spent years trying to get things right," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va), at a techissues.net event on Capitol Hill. "Things are changing much too fast for us to jump in and try to get it right a second time." "I think that the decision that has been handed down is a very important one.... It allows the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to do its job," said Goodlatte, a longtime ally of content owners and co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus. "We are going to want to see how the appellate decision and the re-crafted stay order actually work." [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: Capitol Hill won't help Napster; Napster faces whopping fine Declan McCullagh (Feb 13)