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Forgive us for lack of updates, but it’s spring break week and hopefully we can use this time to get more information on the site. We have brought our timeline up to date on the main docket in Massachusetts (the main case of Joel v. the recording industry) but still have to add details about other dockets. (For instance, Joel’s parents, who live in Rhode Island, were subpoenaed for their family computer… something that I will have to save for another post.)

In the meantime, there have been a number of exciting developments this past week. The Free Software Foundation filed an amicus brief (see here) on March 20 in connection to Joel’s motion to dismiss on grounds of unconstitutionality of copyright act statutory damages as applied to infringement of single MP3 files.  That is quite a mouthful and hard to process, but the basic argument is that the FSF doesn’t like how the RIAA is interpreting copyright law and using it against users like Joel who are unable to defend themselves and in the brief, citing a bunch of cases and articles to support their point.

On March 21, the Department of Justice filed a motion for intervention and a memorandum in defense of the
constitutionality of the Copyright Act’s statutory damages provision. The court document was written before Elena Kagan, former dean of Harvard Law School, who was confirmed as Solicitor General March 19.

So can an MP3 file (that has the retail value of 99 cents or less) be punishable by statutory damages of from $750 to $150,000 — which is 2,100 to 425,000 times the actual damages? We’ll have to wait and see.

The trial is currently suspended because the issue of allowing the hearing to be broadcast live on the Internet is in the court of appeals for the First Circuit with the appellate trial is set for April 8.

-Posted by Yvette Wohn