Copyright damages and a new William Patry blog

By Paul

There have been several commentaries on various blogs already about the jury verdicts against Jammie Thomas here in Minnesota and against Joel Tennenbaum in Massachusetts. My two cents: both verdicts were correct in that they both were infringing copyrights, but the amount of damages may be excessive when applied to individuals. We’ll see if the amount of damages can be limited on appeal.

That said it is great to see that copyright expert William Patry has started blogging again and he and Ben Sheffner have several great posts on these two cases and the broader issue of what is fair payment for creative works and fair punishment for infringing those works. Patry’s new blog is Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars.