Judge calls music biz request for $75 trillion in Limewire damages 'absurd' | Hacker News Reader

Judge calls music biz request for $75 trillion in Limewire damages 'absurd'

law.com

62 pointsanigbrowl16 comments

This seems poorly thought out on the plaintiffs' part in terms of strategy. It's actually one of the standard arguments against the absurd way piracy damages are calculated: opponents point out that if we extrapolate to the amount of total piracy that takes place, the amount of damages being supposedly caused are in excess of the world's total GDP, which clearly can't be right. This case is a bit different, because it's statutory damages, so the plaintiffs aren't claiming they actually suffered $75 trillion in lost sales, which would be even sillier. But it still treads a bit closer to the kind of reductio ad absurdum that their opponents use than I would think the plaintiffs would want.

Isn't the whole point of damages to provide compensation for damage the plaintiff incurred as a result of the defendant's actions?

You've got to have a pretty huge set of balls to demand damages in an amount exceeding what your whole industry has made in the entire history of its existence.

They have huge balls for demanding damages that exceed what anyone has ever earned in any industry in the entire history of commerce.

According to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue

The biggest oil and gas companies add up to 3.4T$ in yearly revenue. Considering they've been going for a century at least it seems feasible that they've surpassed the 75T$ mark in total.

So if you owned a monopoly on the most lucrative industry on earth maybe you could actually pay off the music industry in 300 years or so[1]...

[1] at Exxon Mobil's 9% net profit margin - http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AXOM

> Isn't the whole point of damages to provide compensation for damage the plaintiff incurred as a result of the defendant's actions?

That's actual/compensatory damages. There are also punitive damages.

> You've got to have a pretty huge set of balls to demand damages in an amount exceeding what your whole industry has made in the entire history of its existence.

Not really. You just claim that they kept your biz 10x smaller than it would have been otherwise.

FWIW, Jevon's effect would probably let the music industry to make 2-5x as much as it did at its peak.

The GDP of the entire US is only $14 trillion. The entire world's GDP is $58 trillion. Even if Limewire somehow dominated the entire world and took everything for a year, it still couldn't pay!

It's still legitimate to request the full payment of damages, if they occur. Barring, of course, the absurdity of the whole situation. That is, a single individual or organization can cause damages much higher than they can later repay.

We can all agree that $75T is a ridiculous number, so what's the legal strategy? The music industry may be in technology denial, but surely, they're not detached from reality.

Is there a good legal precedent for asking for so much? Is it just a bartering tactic?

> We can all agree that $75T is a ridiculous number, so what's the legal strategy?

- Mommy, can I have a pony!

-- No, of course not!

- Then can I at least have a puppy?

Is their much money there to get their hands on? Seems like the kind of thing that will probably cost more for lawyers than they will ever recover seeing that limewire has disappeared into obscurity.

Can the judge set payment terms? I mean could he find Limewire guilty and set the terms of payment to 1c a year for 75 bazillion years?

She, in this case.

Either the LimeWire guys are laughing or freaking out, either way that is just plain ridiculous!

Exhibit #123456789 of why the current copyright regime needs to be overhauled.

Dr.Evil is that you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk&feature=relat...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com