Eric Takabayashi wrote:

> Kevin Gowen wrote:
> 
> 
>>Yes, the copyright owner can sue for the profits that the infringer made
>>as well as the damage he suffered i.e. the profit he would have made.
>>You can learn more my reading this section on infringement and remedies:
>>http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
> 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Hmm. Only "profits" in terms of actual damages, or statutory damages of "not
> more than $150,000"? What about companies who allege they lose millions/billions
> or go bankrupt to piracy, but the pirates claim not to be making much off the
> work?



> 
>>>>Sometimes. Mistake of law is not an excuse ("I didn't know it was
>>>>against the law") but mistake of fact sometimes is. For example, while
>>>>leaving a restaurant on a rainy day, you take someone else's umbrella
>>>>out of the umbrella rack while honestly believing it to be your own. You
>>>>have not committed larceny.
>>>
>>>BTW, what does happen when a person is caught knowingly receiving stolen
>>>property, such as buying a TV out of the trunk of someone's car?
>>
>>By statute in most (all?) states, the person who knowingly receives the
>>stolen goods is liable as if he were the principal thief.
> 
> 
> Is this why entertainment companies are being so harsh with those they go after
> for mp3 downloads or file sharing?

No, because treating file swapping as receiving stolen goods is a loser,
since copyright infringement is not theft. Also, if I buy a CD/movie and
then encode it and put it in my share directory, the people who download
it are making a copy of a product that was legally purchased. For
receiving stolen goods, first you need goods that have been stolen.

The entertainment companies are being harsh to make examples of people.

> Wow. I haven't seen this:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/7xx2b
> 
> US Justice Department ready to prosecute file-swappers
> 
> "Americans should realise that swapping illicit copies of music and movies is a
> criminal offense that can result in lengthy prison terms."
> 
> Woo hoo. I thought companies were only demanding hundreds of thousands of
> dollars in cash from users. This is going to be very interesting indeed:
> 
> "Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said he was
> sceptical about the view that peer-to-peer piracy should be a criminal offense.
> 'If we have 70 million people in the United States who are breaking the law, we
> have a big issue.'"
> 
> Has this ever been successfully prosecuted as a criminal offense?

Actually, I haven't followed the file-swapping lawsuits very carefully
in this respect. I'm just familiar with the cases that have held that
companies like Kazaa cannot be held liable for copyright infringement on
their peer-to-peer networks.

- Kevin